DEPARTN4ENT OF THE INTERIOR 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1917, No. 15 



ITUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION 
IN IRELAND AND WALES 

WITH SUGGESTIONS 

FOR UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 

IN THE UNITED STATES 



GEORGE EDWIN MACLEAN 

FORMERLY PRESIDENT OP THE STATE UNIVERSITY OP IOWA 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1917 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAXT OF EDUCATION. 

[For numbers prior to 1916 see leaflet, "List ol" Available Publications, Bureau of Educa- 
tion," which may be had on application.] 

1916. 

*No. 1. Education exlubits at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. 

W. Carson Ryan, jr. 25 cts. 
No. 2. Agricnltural and rural education at the Panama-Pacific International 

Exposition. H. W. Foght. 
*No. 3. Placement of children in the elementary grades. K. J. Hoke. 10 cts. 
*No. 4. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1916. 

5 cts. 
No. 5. Kindergarten training schools. 

No. 6. Statistics of State universities and State colleges, 1915. 
*No. 7. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 191G. 

5 cts. 
*No. 8. Reorganization of the public-school system. F. F. Bunker. 20 cts. 
*No. 9. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1916. 5 cts. 
No. 10. Needed changes in secondary education. Charles W. Eliot and Ernesto 

Nelson, 
*No. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1916. 5 cts. 
No. 12. Problems involved in standardizing State normal schools. C. H. Judd 

and S. C. Parker. 
*No. 13. Monthly record of current educational publications. May, 1916. 5 cts. 
*No. 14. State pension systems for public-school teachers. W. Carson Ryan, jr., 

and Roberta King. 10 cts. 
*No.l5. Montlily record of current educational publications— Index, February, 

1915-Jauuary, 1916. 5 cts. 
*No.l6. Reorganizing a county system of rural schools. J. Harold Williams. 
10 cts. 
No. 17. The Wisconsin county training schools for teachers in rural schools. 

W. E. Larson. 
*No. 18. Public facilities for educating the alien. F. E. Farrington. 10 cts. 
No. 19. State higher educational institutions of Iowa. 

No. 20. Accredited secondary schools in the United States. Samuel P. Cnpeu. 
No. 21. Vocational secondary education. 

*No. 22. Monthly record of curtent educational publications, September, 1916. 
5 cts. 
No. 23. Open-air schools. S. P. Kingsley and F. B. Dresslar, 
No. 24. Monthly record of current educational publications, October, 1916. 
No. 25. Commercial education. Glen Levin Swiggett. 
No. 26. Educational institutions of the State of Washington. 
No. 27. State higher educational institutions of North Dakota. 
*No, 28. The social studies in secondary education. Arthur W. Dunn. 10 cts. 
No. 29. Educational survey of Wyoming. A. C. Monahan and Katherine M. 

Cook. 
No. 30. University training for public service. 

No. 31. Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1916. 
*No. 32. Some facts concerning manual arts and home-making BUbJects In 156 

cities. J. C. Park and C. H. Harlan. 5 cts. 
No. 33. Registration and student records in smaller colleges. B. P. Andrews. 

5 cts. 
No. 34. Service Instruction of American corporations. L. F. Fuld. 
No. 35. Adult illiteracy. Winthrop Talbot. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1917, No. 15 



STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION 
IN IRELAND AND WALES 

WITH SUGGESTIONS 

FOR UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 

IN THE UNITED STATES 



GEORGE EDWIN MacLEAN 

FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1917 



LA G<^(s 



ADDITIONAL COPIES 

OF THIS PUBUCATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

"WASHINGTON, D. C. 

AT 

15 CENTS PER COPY 



0. of D. 
NOV 14 1917 



jX 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of transmittal 7 

Introduction : 

Object of bulletin and institutions \dsited 9 

Variations from English and Scotch types 9 

Transitional stage closing formative period 10 

PART I.— IRELAND. 

Chapter I. The Dublin University, Trinity College: 

A variant of the Cambridge type of college and university 11 

Monopoly of higher education in Ireland 12 

An early leader in university reforms I3 

Recent distinctive features I3 

Attempts to make Trinity a constituent college in a larger University of 

Dublin or of Ireland 18 

Mssion of an endowed university side by side with State-supported insti- 
tutions 2g 

Chapter II. The Catholic University: 

Its occasion jg 

Newman's Adsion of an Irish university 20 

Newman's plan of university government 21 

Pathos of Newman's seven years of rectorship 22 

Story of "Newman's university " since his day 23 

Coalescence of the Catholic University with the National University 24 

Chapter III. The predecessors of the National University: 

Its genealogy 25 

Mr. Wyse's plan for national education in Ireland 25 

The Queen's Colleges, Belfast, Cork, Galway 27 

Queen's University 28 

The Royal University 29 

Royal Commission ( 1901-1903) recommendations 29 

Chapter IV. The National University: 

Comparisons especially with the University of Wales 31 

In organization 32 

In educational policies 37 

Promise of success as a State institution 40 

Question of the permanence of the federated university 41 

3 



4 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter V. The three constituent colleges: Page. 

Plan of organization 45 

Financial support 46 

University College, Cork 47 

University College, Galway 49 

University College, Dublin 50 

Chapter VI. The Queen's University of Belfast: 

Royal Belfast Academical Institution 52 

\'ariations in statutes from those of the National University. . , 53 

Agreement with Municipal Technical Institute 53 

Arrangement with Royal College of Science 54 

Tutorial classes and university extension 54 

Chair of education 54 

Faculty of commerce 55 

Student's representative council 55 

Pension scheme 55 

Buildings 56 

Chapter VII. The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction: 

Its origin 58 

Irish Agricultural Organization Society 59 

The department bound up with coordinating bodies 60 

The Royal College of Science 60 

The Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin 63 

The policies of the department 63 

PART II.— WALES. 

Chapter VIII. Movements preparatory for the University of Wales: 

The crown of an ancient, of a religious, and of a modern movement 66 

Establishment of the university retarded 68 

Aberystwyth, the pathfinder 68 

Cardiff 70 

Bangor 73 

Cooperation of the colleges coincident with school and local government 

legislation 74 

Renewed movement for the creation of the university 75 

Chapter IX. The University of Wales: 

The preparation of the charter 76 

A confederation of colleges 77 

A university on wheels 77 

The university authorities 78 

Qualifjing schemes of study 79 

Theological instruction and colleges 79 

Degrees in education and training of teachers 80 

Supplementary charter 81 

The three constituent colleges in the university's formative period 83 

Chapter X. The Royal Commission and educational problems confronting it: 

The occasion for the appointment of the commission 89 

Appointment of commission and ' ' terms of reference " 90 

Problems brought out by the Moseley Commission and Principal ReicheL. 91 

Proposed municipal university at Cardiff 96 



CONTENTS. 5 

Chapter X — Continued. Page. 

Problems emerging in the report of the Treasury's ad\dBory committee, 

1908 93 

Some recommendations of advisory committees of 1914 95 

A specimen solution suggested by a Welsh leader 95 

Problems of organization, ' ' separationists " and federalists 96 

Resolutions of various bodies 97 

Proposed educational reforms 98 

Relation of ' ' institutions pro\dding education of a post-secondary nature " . 99 

Movement for the coordination of education 100 

PART III.— ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND WALES. 

Chapter XI. Summary of studies and suggestions 101 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Department or the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Was/migton, March 10, 1917. 
Sir: Because the changes in tendencies and ideals in higher edu- 
cation in Great Britain and the consequent changes in the curriculum 
and the details of administration in colleges and universities within 
the last few years contained so much of general interest for higher 
education in the United States, in 1913 I commissioned Dr. George 
Edwin MacLean, formerly president of the State University of Iowa, 
to make a careful first-hand study of the newer features of these 
institutions and to prepare a report on them for this bureau. This 
study was made by Dr. MacLean, with the generous cooperation of 
university and college officials, between 1913 and 1915. The report 
thus includes an account of progress until the beginning of the 
present war. I recommend that this report be published as bulletins 
of the Bureau of Education under the titles Studies in Higher Edu- 
cation in England and Scotland and Studies in Higher Education 
in Ireland and Wales. 
Respectfully submitted. 

P. P. Claxton, 

Co7nmi88ione7\ 
The Secretary of the Interior. 



STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 



INTRODUCTION. 

This study represents an endeavor to point out facts and tendnecies 
in higher education in Ireland and Wales by which American uni- 
versities and colleges may profit. It complements similar studies in 
England and Scotland,^ and presupposes familiarity with the prin- 
cipal features and terminology of these studies. 

The compiler of the bulletin visited some 20 institutions ^ of like 
type with those in England and Scotland and for the most part 
modeled after them. Similar historical, religious, and political 
forces have been at work in them. In all of these institutions religion 
begat the beginnings and ecclesiastical zeal has asserted itself. 
Royal commissions and acts of Parliament have successively played 
no small part. The influences of the industrial age and of imperial- 
ism have been much less than in England and Scotland. The 
strength of nationalism has been much greater, and consequently 
the aspiration for a national system of education, crowned by a 
State-aided university, has been stronger. Notable differences may 
be attributed to the predominance of Celtic blood, traditions of a pre- 
Saxon culture, political domination by what was long considered a 
foreign power, comparative isolation due to geographical position, 
and the limitation of industry largely to agriculture and mining. 

Contrary to the common saying that educational movements pro- 
ceed from above downward, in both Ireland and Wales the estab- 
lishment of lower school systems has prepared the way for founding 
the universities. In both the State has largely supplanted voluntary 
schools with its own. The clannish character of the Celt, much less 

1 studies in Higher Education in England and Scotland, with Suggestions for Univer- 
sities and colleges in the United States. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16. 

2 University of Dublin (Trinity College); National University ■ of Ireland (University 
College, Cork; University College, Galway ; University College, Dublin) ; The Queen's Uni 
versity of Belfast ; Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland ; 
Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin ; Royal College of Science for Ireland, Dublin; 
National Museum, Dublin; National Library, Dublin; I'lunkett House, Dublin (head- 
quarters of tho Irish Agricultural Organization Society, and Cooperative Reference Li- 
brary) ; Alexandra College and School, Dublin ; Tyrone House, Dublin (Commission of 
National Education in Ireland) ; Royal Belfast Academical Institution ; Municipal Tech- 
nical Institute, Belfast ; University of Wales (University College of Wales, Aberystwyth ; 
University College of North Wales, Bangor ; University College of South Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire, Cardiff) ; National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth ; National Museum of 
Wales, Cardiff. 



10 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

individualistic than that of the Anglo-Saxon, the poverty of the 
countries, and the purposes of the English Government to Anglicize 
them, have resulted in State systems of education. It is largely true 
that in the earlier times " the aim was to denationalize the country 
and to wean it from its language and from its religion."^ The ad- 
ministrators of the national systems of education at different times 
have had various aims. " One powerful influence wished the worlrof 
education to subserve the purpose of proselytism ; another wished it 
to secularize; another to Anglicize."^ 

Eecently the outcome of the above conditions has been the leader- 
ship of Ireland and Wales in State educational experiments, in agri- 
cultural and technical education, and in emphasizing the ethical side 
of education in forming character. In the two countries education 
is in a most interesting transitional stage. Besides the effects of the 
war, one must reckon with the direct and indirect influences of the 
act for the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales, and 
of the home-rule act in Ireland, the operation of both of which 
is suspended for the period of the war. The disendowment portion 
of the Welsh act provides for a certain distribution of funds for 
educational purposes in museums and libraries. The Irish home- 
rule act is silent as regards education, except for the provision that 
schools shall be maintained, and shall be free from any discrimina- 
tion against pupils on account of denominational prejudice. Guar- 
anties are also given against the diminution of endowments and 
funds of Trinity College, Dublin, and Queen's University, Belfast. 
The Irish Parliament will therefore have a free hand to coordinate 
the National Commissioners of Education, who manage the ele- 
mentary schools, and the " Intermediate Board," who examine, in- 
spect, and subsidize secondary schools; and to coordinate into the 
national system the Nationar University. Steps in this direction are 
not unlikely. For many years " coordination " has been a catchword 
in Ireland as in all the world, and the National University is one 
illustration of it. 

In Wales the treasury, the board of education, and their ad- 
visory committees for years have been urging more coordination, and 
the Royal Commission on the University of Wales, just appointed, 
is expected to further it. There is also agitation with reference to 
the relations of the Central Welsh board to the national system. 

In short, Ireland and Wales educationally, though not without 
enchanting traditions of ancient glories antedating those of English 
and Scotch lore, are young, plastic, and in a formative period. 

1 Starkie, W. J. M., Resident Commissioner of National Education, Ireland. "Address, 
British Association, Belfast, 1902." 

' Gill, T. P., Sec. of the Dept. of Agr and Tech. Instruction for Ireland. "Address, 
British Association, Dublin, 1908." 



PART I. IRELAND. 



CHAPTER I. THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY— TRINITY COLLEGE. 

The University of Dublin represents in Ireland the same type of 
university as Oxford and Cambridge in England, with a com- 
mingling of the Scotch type. As Durham is a modern, so is Dublin 
an ancient variant of the former type, particularly of Cambridge, 
in its Puritan period, from which its first four provosts came. 
The charter, contrary to the usual order, refers to " Cambridge or 
Oxford,*' and the Cambridge terminology as in the use of the word 
"Commencement" prevails to the present day 

From the beginning Dublin has been a persistent variant as a 
" single-college " university from the Oxford and Cambridge type. 
In March, 1591-92, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter or letters 
patent incorporating a college — "the Mother of an University " 
(unum Collegium Mater Universitatis) — under the style and title 
of " The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, 
founded by Queen Elizabeth." ^ 

Trinity College is an anomaly in English history of a college that 
has exercised all the functions of a university. It is plain that the 
charter, in accordance with the example of Cambridge and Oxford, 
anticipated that other colleges would be founded, and these incor- 
porated with Trinity College would make her the " mother of an 
university." Indeed, attempts to do so have been made, but in 
the earlier days new houses were called halls, not colleges, and 
they were not sufficiently endowed or encouraged to become colleges. 
In modern times the endeavors to persuade Trinity College to 
become the nucleus of a federal university of Ireland or of Dublin 
have failed. 

The first statutes of this combination in a single institution of a 
university and a college were copied from the university statutes of 
Cambridge, while the real government and life w^ere those of a college 
only. The practically inseparable university and college were ruled 
by the college provost and fellows, who elected university officers. 
Two of the first fellows, a Dublin schoolmaster and his assistant, were 

1 For history of the college, cf. MahaCfy, J. P., "An Epoch in Irish History " (T. Fisher 
Unwin, 1906); "The Book of Trinity College, Dublin, 1591-1891;" "Trinity College, 
Dublin," by W. MacNeile Dixon (College Series). 

u 



12 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

Scotch university men, pupils of Andrew Melville, the Protestant 
Scotch university reformer. The incongruity from a Camhridge 
point of view of a university and a college in one was little felt at 
that time. In Scotland the central universit , governed without com- 
plications from undeveloped colleges; on the other hand, in Cam- 
bridge and Oxford, highly developed colleges were arrogating 
university functions. In this particular Trinity College stands as an 
intermediary between Oxford and Cambridge and the American 
colonial colleges. The latter exercised the university function of 
conferring degrees. They have maintained the original college 
organization with slight modifications to the present day. At PTar- 
vard from early times the name " college " or " university " was used 
indiscriminately. The contradistinction^ between the college and 
the university was not clearly made until in the last quarter of the 
nineteenth century when, for example, the title " Yale University " 
was adopted in connection with Yale College. 

Trinity College also is a variant from Oxford and Cambridge in 
that it did not, like them, grow from a gathering of scholars about 
masters but was deliberately planted by church and state; and has 
suffered from the interference of each. The purpose of the founders 
was not simply to spread learning but to strengthen the Established 
Irish (Protestant Episcopal) Church and to Anglicize the Irish 
nation. 

In a land of wealth, Oxford and Cambridge and their colleges 
were guilds of scholars, springing from a love of learning, and not 
planted for purposes of propaganda. For four centuries they secured 
privileges from church and state, and attained an autonomy that 
the imposition of statutes in the times of Queen Elizabeth and Arch- 
bishop Laud could not extinguish. 

Dublin, starting as a creature of church and state, had a long 
struggle to attain a degree of autonomy to which she since has clung 
tenaciously. In a sense her initial privileges impeded her. She had 
a monopoly of higher education in Ireland, making her unpopular 
with a majority of the population, and an internal government in 
the hands of a provost and a few" fellows — a close corporation, de- 
signed for efficiency in a small college but becoming an autocratic 
oligarchy in a large university and breeding discord. 

The spirit of the monopoly may be gathered from a reason for the 
founding of " Trinity " given in the preamble of Elizabeth's charter 
and letters patent. She wished a college in Ireland for the instruc- 
tion of her people there, " because many became infected with Popery 
in foreign universities."^ In the eighteenth century it was unlaw- 

1 Cf. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1913, No. 4, Chap. IX. 
»Cf. Mahaffy, supra, p. 1. 



DUBLIN UNIVERSITY TEINITY COLLEGE. 13 

ful for an Irish Eoman Catholic to go abroad to study or to be taught 
by Roman Catholics at home. At the same time Trinity statutes re- 
quired all students to take an oath denying the temporal supremacy 
of the Pope in these dominions, and made attendance upon the Epis- 
copal services in the college chapel compulsory. Lecky says, how- 
ever, in practice Roman Catholic and Nonconformist students were 
sometimes excused from attendance at chapel. One could not pro- 
ceed to a degree who had not taken the " oath of supremacy " and 
made a declaration against transubstantiation. But the subscription 
to the " thirty-nine articles," then necessary for admission to the 
English universities, was not required. 

Another variation of " Trinity " from Oxford and Cambridge was 
due to the fact that the city of Dublin was among its founders, hav- 
ing presented it a site. The idea of a national university at the 
capital of a country and of municipal support was abroad. Edin- 
burgh had just been founded as the " Town's College." Gresham Col- 
lege (founded 1548) was anticipatory of a University of London. 

In the sphere of university reform and progress in many ways 
Dublin has preceded the older universities, due perhaps to the exigen- 
cies of Irish agitation. As a semistate institution the university Avas 
able to effect changes in its statutes by means of royal letters. In 
1794 a royal letter in accordance with the Roman Catholic relief act 
of the preceding year admitted Roman Catholics and dissenters to 
all privileges of study and of graduation and to sizarships, but 
scholars and fellows remained under the old restrictions. In 1840 a 
royal letter abolished celibacy as a condition for a fellowship. 

Parallel with the movements for university reform and the ap- 
pointments of royal commissions in England from 1851 onward, 
several commissions sat upon Dublin. In the main, they did not 
find need for such radical changes as the commissions recommended 
in England; one commission assigns the reason, "numerous improve- 
ments of an important character having been from time to time in- 
troduced by the authorities of the college." The problems of reform 
were not complicated by the multiplicity of colleges as in Oxford and 
Cambridge. 

Dublin has been a leader in many of the features now characteristic 
of the new or modern universities. At an early date it enforced a 
inatriculation examination and conducted genuine examinations un- 
der its own teachers and not by external examiners. The curriculum 
was widened at a much earlier date than in its sister universities. It 
was the first university in the Kingdom to establish chairs of modern 
languages. It was the first in the Avorld probably to give instruction 
in Irish, and it has been reintroduced into its curriculum. King 
James was urgent that the college should fulfill its main purpose to 
train Irish and Anglo-Irish students to teach the people the reformed 



14 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

religion in their native tongue. The Greek and Latin classics never 
had the supremacy they had and still have at Oxford. Compulsory 
Greek was abolished in 1900. 

At Oxford and Cambridge four academical years of residence had 
become about the only qualification for a B. A. degree in the eight- 
eenth century. At Dublin the examinations gave a meaning beyond 
residence to the four years, and the institution still maintains a four 
years' course akin to the four years' American college course until 
recently considered almost sacred by the colleges. This is now a 
point of difference between Dublin and Cambridge and Oxford. 
Having Paised the standards of work and examination Cambridge 
reduced fehe required residence to three academic years in 1858 and 
Oxford in 1859. On the other hand Dublin has not made residence 
a necessity for the B. A. degree. If one passes an examination each 
term he need not reside in college or attend lectures. Thus Dublin 
prepared tbe way for the external students and degrees of the Uni- 
versity of London. But Dublin required residence and attendance 
in the faculties of law, medicine, divinity, and engineering. The 
further condition for graduation in all these faculties that one must 
first take the B. A. degree makes Dublin stand out as over against 
Oxford and Cambridge as a " professional " university. 

The standard of medical degrees is of the highest. The establish- 
ment of the school of physic (medicine), dating from the time of 
Charles II, promoted also the foundation of that famous corpora- 
tion the College of Physicians which has cooperated with " Trinity " 
in requiring the B. A. degree as a preliminary to medical degrees. 
A bachelor of medicine must have taken the degree of bachelor of 
arts and must have spent five years in the study of medicine. A 
doctor in medicine must have taken the M. B. degree and must be of 
M. A. standing. There are also subdivisions in the medical cur- 
riculum courses leading to degrees of bachelor and of master in 
dental science, in obstetric science, and in surgery. 

In 1811 the university established the first school of engineering in 
Ireland. 

In 1873 the university abolished all religious tests for all offices 
except for teachers in divinity. In 1914 a Koman Catholic was men- 
tioned for the provostship. By more than 40 years Dublin antici- 
pated the action of Cambridge in opening its degrees to those not 
members of the established church. 

Reforms in the constitution of the university, moving in the direc- 
tion of representative government, began in 1857. The small oli- 
garchic "board," consisting of the provost and senior fellows, was 
given power to alter rules only w^hen approved by the senate or public 
congregation of the university, then for the first time incorporated. 
The Senate consisted of doctors and masters on the books. The 



DUBLIN UNIVERSITY TEINITY COLLEGE. 15 

caput of the senate, consisting of the chancellor and the provost or 
their substitutes and the senior master of three years' standing 
elected by the senate, can collectively or singly veto a grace. The 
chancellor or vice chancellor has an absolute veto in the senate. Still 
in 1873 Mr. Gladstone spoke of the University of Dublin as in " servi- 
tude to eight gentlemen, who elect the other fellows, who elect also 
themselves, and who govern both the university and the college." In 
1874 an advance in representative government was made by the 
institution of the council of the university. It consists of the pro- 
vost, the senior lecturer, the registrar, and sixteen members of the 
senate ; two elected by the " board " ; and the others by senior and 
junior fellows, professors; and four members elected at large by all 
the members of the senate. 

The council nominates to all professorships not subject to previous 
legal restrictions and not in the school of divinity. The nominations 
are subject to the approval of the board. The approval both of 
the board and of the council for regulations respecting qualifications, 
duties, and tenure of office of professors, and respecting studies, 
lectures, and examinations is required. 

A full measure of reform was made possible by letters patent of 
the present King in 1911. The gov-erning body, "the board," 
formerly consisting of the provost and 7 senior fellows, was en- 
larged to a possible 11 or 15 members with representatives elected 
by the junior fellows and the body of professors. 

In 1911 the Crown surrendered its power of making new statutes 
to the board, subject to the consent of a majority of the fellows and 
the approval* of the visitors. 

The visitors are the chancellor of the university and the Lord 
Chief Justice of Ireland. 

The chancellor, with life tenure, is elected by the senate from 
three persons nominated by the board. The provost is appointed 
by the Crown. 

The same letters patent made provision for the constitution of 
a divinity-school council, all to be members of the Church of Ireland. 
It consists of the provost, five representatives of the board, three 
representatives of the teaching staff, and three representatives of the 
bishops chosen by them. The divinity-school council is empowered 
to nominate to divinity professorships. The appointments are sub- 
ject to the approval of the board. The divinity-school council is 
not to have control of the conditions on which university degrees 
in divinity are conferred. The exercises and examinations for such 
degrees are subject to the approval of the board and of a court 
constituted for the purpose from ecclesiastical professors of the 
Church of Ireland or churches in communion therewith or similar 



16 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

courts of other denominations, the regius professor of divinity being 
among the examiners. No religious tests are to be required. 

Letters patent in 1904 made it possible to admit women to privi- 
leges and degrees of the luiiversity. They now enjoy these privileges 
except in the engineering and viivinity schools. A separate anatomi- 
cal department has been provided for women medical students. 

In the undergraduate arts courses there are several distinctive 
features. For the pass B. A. degree the outlines of the old four 
years' course of compulsory studies even into the last two years are 
more fully preserved than eisewliere. Ethics and astronomy are 
still compulsory as well as logic which from the beginning of the 
institution has been made prominent. The four years' course, how- 
ever, may be completed by keeping two out of the three terms of 
each year, or within three years from entrance by taking the final 
examination of the first year at the time of entrance. The tutorial 
system is preserved in that every student must choose one of the 
staff of the tutor fellows as his tutor, and honor courses are given 
partly by professors and partly by tutors. An honor B, A., called 
a " moderatorship," can be taken in 10 different groups.^ 

The Oxford and Cambridge practice of admitting to an M. A. 
degree a B. A. of three years' standing upon the mere payment of a 
fee still prevails. 

Though degrees in the professional schools of divinity, of law, of 
medicine, and of engineering may not be taken without the pre- 
cedent B. A. degree, by reason of the privileges extended to the arts 
students of attending professional lectures, the advantages can be 
obtained of what are known as the combined arts and professional 
courses in American universities. Since 1877 the university has had 
an Indian and home civil -service school. It also had a post-graduate 
army school with a two-year course recognized for commissions by 
the army council. The school is suspended owing to the war but the 
officers' training corps, established in 1910, with total strength of 
about 400 before the war, continues. 

A professorship in education was established in 1905 and diplomas 
and certificates in education are given. A training department for 
secondary teachers, for women students only, is carried on in con- 
nection with Alexandra College, Dublin. 

The latest development is the beginning of a school of agriculture 
and forestry with a two-year course. The purpose is to cooperate 
with the Government agricultural department and to make use of 
its farm near Dublin. 

1 1. Mathematics. 2. Classics. 3. Mental and moral philosophy. 4. Experimental sci- 
ence. 5. Natural science. 6. Historical and political science. 7. Modern literature. 
8. Legal and political science. 9. Engineering science. 10. Celtic languages. 



DUBLIN UNIVERSITY TRINITY COLLEGE. 17 

Since the opening of the present century, modern laboratories and 
equipment for the teaching of physical and natural science and for 
research have been given by the graduates and friends of the uni- 
versity. 

The library, famous for its " long room " and MSS., affords oppor- 
tunity for research students, as it is one of the largest libraries in 
the British Isles, receiving by act of Parliament a copy of every book 
printed in the United Kingdom. 

The ample walled grounds, entered by an imposing gateway, and 
the buildings with their "courts" or "quads" called "squares," 
opening one into another give the air of an Oxford or a Cam- 
bridge dropped into the midst of Dublin. This outward semblance 
reflects the actual kinship of Trinity College with its two unique 
sisters. Graduates in arts of the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge are admissible in Trinity ad eundem to all degrees they have 
received in their own universities, and undergraduates from Oxford 
and Cambridge have full acknowledgment of their residence and 
standing by Dublin. In turn Oxford and Cambridge extend similar 
privileges only to one another and to Dublin by " incorporation," 
marking a supposed equality in this trinity of institutions. 

Trinity College has brought the advantages and spirit of the other 
two venerable universities to Ireland. Planted as a bulwark of Eng- 
lish and Protestant influences it has well been called " the only Eng- 
lish foundation that exer succeeded in Ireland." But its success has 
been largely due to its becoming Anglo-Irish and its secularization. 

From the first " it attracted not only the sons of the English plan- 
tation, but those of the Irish gentlemen left as tenants upon their 
estates " and occasionally the sons of Irish chieftains. The evasion 
of religious tests before their abolition, the broad terms of residence, 
and the tolerably low standards of admission, due in part to the 
absence of public schools like those of England, gathered a widely 
representative constituency with a sprinkling of Roman Catholics 
among the Protestants of different denominations. 

Many of the leading minds in Ireland have been graduates of the 
college. The alumni have been strong enough to defeat every at- 
tempt to make Trinity a constituent college in a larger university of 
Dublin or of Ireland. In 1873 Mr. Gladstone brought in a bill to 
emancipate the University of Dublin from the control of Trinity. 
The Queen's Colleges of Belfast and Cork, the Catholic University, 
and Magee (Presbyterian) College were to become parts of the uni- 
versity with Trinity. The latter's theological school was to be given 
to the recently disestablished Church of Ireland. To avoid contro- 
versy metaphysical and moral philosophy and modern history w^ere 
not to be taught in the new university. The measure failed. Protes- 
89725°— 17 2 



18 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

lants did not like it because it deprived them of power and limited 
the range of instruction. Roman Catholics opposed it because it 
gave them no endowments.^ In 1907 Mr. Bryce, then Chief Secretary 
of Ireland, proposed a scheme meeting these objections, merging 
Trinity College in a new University of Dublin with the Queen s col- 
leges and a new college for Roman Catholics. The control of the 
university was to be in a board, partly nominated by the Crown and 
partly by the colleges and with representatives of the students. The 
alumni organized a " Dublin defense committee " of four or five 
thousand. They argued that the ideals of Trinity were incompatible 
with the principles of authority and of scientific theory as expressed 
in the " Index." On the other hand the Roman Catholic bishops 
objected on the ground that Catholic students would be brought into 
an atmosphere inimical to their religious faith. The plan, so far as 
it concerned Trinity College, was dropped, owing to the strong oppo- 
sition the " Dublin defense committee " had developed, and to the 
departure of Mr. Bryce to become amba&sador to the United States. 
It prepared the w^ay for Mr. Birrell, Mr. Bryce's successor, to bring 
to a conclusion the agitation of many years for a National University. 

Whatever opportunities Trinity College may have lost in saving 
the people the expense of duplications, in lending luster to the Na- 
tional University, and leavening its lump, the question is settled that 
Ireland, like England and the United States, is to have the advan- 
tage of the independent and endowed university side by side with the 
State-supported institution. Trinity College remains as an illustra- 
tion that it is the nature of a university, whether founded by church 
or state or both, to develop its own independent life and to be a free 
witness to truth. 

Referring to the settlement of the Irish university question by the 
establishment of the National University and the Queen's Univer- 
sity of Belfast, in both of which there are to be no religious tests, the 
erroneous statement (a natural impression from past history) has 
been made that " it was tacitly agreed that the former should be the 
resort for Roman Catholics and the latter for Presbyterians, Trinity 
remaining the recognized Episcopal center." ^ This is not true as to 
an agreement, though, in fact, it has a large element of truth. 

In the new era when Ireland shall have passed out from intense 
politicalism and religious zeal and sectarianism Trinity College may 
have a special mission in preserving the continuity of university 
traditions and in cooperation with the new foundations in perpetu- 
ating a genuine university life. 

» Balfour, Graham. The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland. Oxford, 
Clarendon Press, 1903. Cf. passun. 

' Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XXVII, p. 774. 



CHAPTER II.— THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. 

One is surprised to discover that the Catholic University of 
Ireland, made illustrious by its first rector, Newman, and his famous 
inaugural lectures on his " Idea af a university," still exists in posse. 
Though it is now in abeyance and its existence was largely on paper, 
its story throws an important sidelight upon the history of higher 
education in Ireland. It reflected the combined ancient national 
and church traditions, not without traces of the legendary period 
of an independent Irish learning which had survived successive 
foreign invasions and which the present Gaelic cult has emphasized. 
Memories lingered of attempts to establish Irish-Catholic univer- 
sities from the time of the founding of a University of Ireland, 
in 1312, by an archbishop of Dublin, and of the work of education 
partially done by the great abbeys, like those of Dublin and Kells, 
before the Reformation. Nor were the appeals by the Jesuits to the 
Popes to establish Irish universities in the counter Reformation for- 
gotten. 

The occasion of the establishment of the Catholic University was 
the reaction against " mixed education " ^ and the inauguration of 
the Queen's colleges by the State. Mixed education had been sup- 
ported by the Roman Catholic Archbishap Murray, of Dublin, and 
others intimately acquainted with conditions in Ireland. There 
was opposition from the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam. In 1841, 
however, the Pope decided that " mixed schools " were to have a 
fair trial and forbade further controversy. But the spirit of the 
day manifested itself in a public declaration in 1845 by nine of 
tlie bishops of the Established (Episcopal) Church against any plan 
of education established and maintained by the State. 

After the return of Pius IX from exile, Dr. Cullen w^as sent from 
Rome as Irish primate and apostolic delegate. Under his influence 
the bishops in the Synod of Thurles, in 1850, by the majority of one 
declared the Queen's Colleges dangerous to faith and morals. They 
resolved to erect a Catholic university. 

Under a brief from the Pope the university was put into opera- 
tion in 1854, the governing body consisting of the Roman Catholic 
archbishops and bishops of Ireland. 

1 Combined literary and moral with separate religious instruction in a school. 

19 



20 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

Dr. Cullen proposed to Dr. Newman that he should allow himself 
to be nominated rector and suggested that he should deliver dis- 
courses on university education in order to prepare the Catholic 
public for the project of a university. 

Newman had a vision of an Irish university that should be an 
Oxford of his time, made cosmopolitan, Catholic, and modern.^ 
Students were to be attracted to it from England and the Continent. 
Ireland was to become again a center of faith and missions for the 
world, as in the days of St. Columba. In the year 1852-53 Newman 
made studies of continental universities and concluded to make 
Louvain the pattern for his. He made the decision not to grow a 
university from a college, but to plant a university at once. He 
wrote : " I suppose a college is a domestic establishment or com- 
munity in which teachers and taught live together as one family; 
sufficient for itself and with little or no direct bearing upon society 
at large. I suppose a university is a collection of professors and 
scholars independent of each other, though united under one head 
arid by one code of laws, addressing all comers, acting on all the 
world, and assuming a national aspect." Though his discourses so 
emphasized the idea and scope of liberal education that he has been 
taken as advocating literally that a university is a place where noth- 
ing useful should be taught, one of his first acts was to purchase a 
medical college. Simultaneously he urged the establishment of an 
engineering school despite the " difficulty of combining academical 
residence with the practical studies and the experience in field works 
which the science requires." Believing a residential college to be 
indispensable to a university, he gave his earliest attention to pro- 
viding a lodging house. At his own cost he erected a temporary 
church for the university to " maintain and symbolize that great 
principle in which we glory as our characteristic — the union of 
science with religion." Newman anticipated many features which 
have become prominent in modern universities. He proposed a 
" scholar's degree " at the end of the first two years of a liberal-arts 
course. At this point one might turn aside to a particular profes- 
sion or continue a second course of liberal studies for two years, 
leading to the bachelor's degree. At the end of another three years, 
or at the end of seven years from entrance, when the student is 
twenty-three years old, he may receive the degree of master of 
philosophy or letters, or doctor in theology, in law, or in medicine, 
or an engineering diploma. He proposed certificates or diplomas of 
m^rit for persons short of a degree submitting themselves to an 
examination in philosophy or letters. 

^ Newman, Cardinal. " My Campaign In Ireland." Part I. Catholic Reports and 
other papers. Printed for private circulation only. Aberdeen, A. King & Co., 1896. Cf, 
passim. 



THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. 21 

Besides intern and extern members of the university, to open 
its advantages to the furthest possible extent, he proposed a group 
of auditors for studious persons to attend lectures without the exami- 
nations. He w^ould continue the discipline of the school and college 
into the university exercised through the heads of the residential 
halls and tutors. These are to " conduct students to the arms of a 
kind mother, an alma mater, who inspires affection while she whis- 
pers truth." Recognizing the difficulties of government in the transi- 
tional stage of youth, he said, " a certain tenderness or even laxity of 
rule on the one hand, and an anxious, vigilant, importunate atten- 
tion on the other are characteristics of that discipline which is pe- 
culiar to a university." He acknowledged the necessity for the exer- 
cise of this " Lesbian Canon." " The geniibs loci is the instructor." 
Certain honorable emoluments and privileges should be open to de- 
serving students. These " would constitute a middle party between 
the superiors and the students." He saw the importance of relating 
the university to the secondary schools and of the power of inspect- 
ing them. He was feeling after a system which would also affiliate 
the country schools and training schools for teachers. 

With a high sense of academic freedom and of the essentially 
democratic nature of a university, Newman recommended a plan of 
government. He said : " It was our business to make the constitution 
of the university as perfect as possible in itself, and as little depend- 
ent as might be on the interposition of external authority." He 
seems to have been conscious of various dangers attendant upon 
university government. Loyal to his ecclesiastical superiors, he rec- 
ognized the possible disadvantages of a governing board constituted 
ex officio instead of ad hoc and without lay representatives. 

He recommended that the government of the university be com- 
mitted to a rector nominated during the first 10 years by the episco- 
pal body, and revocable by them. His belief in vesting authority 
and responsible leadership in the rector, not unlike the functions 
given to the American college president, was brought out in his 
further recommendations. The deans of discipline and other uni- 
versity officers were to be appointed by the rector, subject to the 
approval of the archbishops. The archbishops, acting in the name 
of the governing body, were to appoint the professors and lecturers 
and determine their salaries upon the recommendation of the rector. 
" The Rector's jurisdiction is supreme throughout the university. 
Nothing can be done without his concurrence, whether in the facul- 
ties or in the collegiate houses." He was studying to preserve the 
unity of the university and to forefend against the development and 
predominance of colleges which had occurred in Oxford. 

With the same care with which he had guarded the prerogatives 
of the rector, he safeguarded the powers of the teaching staff. He 



22 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

formed two bodies for the transaction of the business of the uni- 
versity, a senate and rectorial council. 

He considered the senate, consisting of the resident body of teach- 
ers and officers, as " the supreme power of the university." Appre- 
ciating the danger of academic freedom becoming merely academic 
in the sense of impractical or eccentric, by the sole exercise of the 
supreme power by the resident body of professors and officials he 
gave seats in the senate and council to " Fellows of the University," 
viz, such as have what elsewhere would be called the degree of doctor 
in any of the five faculties." 

The professors of each faculty were to elect annually out of their 
own body their dean and secretary. Each division of the faculty 
of arts was to have a dean and secretary. 

The council, which was intended for the support of the rector, 
was to be composed of the vice rector, the deans of faculties, and 
three professors with one vote from the faculty of arts due to the 
prominence and number of this faculty. His " innovation on the 
pattern of Louvain," in the interest of professorial representation 
in the executive, and his proposed " corrective to the evil of a resi- 
dential oligarchy " anticipate modern university reforms. 

With wisdom he proposed that certain innovations in his advanced 
scheme of government be set up, at first for 10 years, possibly to 
win favor for their adoption and to have the benefit of the experi- 
ments. 

Two of his propositions were certainly ahead of his times. The 
first was the blen.ding of the professorial and tutorial systems in 
having the same person act in both capacities to the same students. 
The second was the establishment of " a school of useful arts to 
develop and apply the material resources of Ireland comprising 
the professorships of engineering, mining, agriculture, etc., apply- 
ing a scientific treatment to museums, observatories, and archaeo- 
logical remains." 

A pathos surrounds Newman's seven years' rectorship (1851-58). 
He had to contend against the prejudice of being English and 
an Oxford man. His installation as rector was delayed three years, 
and in the meantime important steps were taken independent of 
the rector. His governing board, consisting of archbishops and 
bishops and he being merely a priest, made him glad of a suggestion 
of Cardinal Wiseman that the Pope should create Doctor Newman a 
bishop in partibus. He wrote : " I did feel glad for I did not see 
how without some accession of weight to my official position I could 
overcome the inertia or opposition which existed in Ireland on my 
project of a university." The appointment failed to come. The 
institution was dependent for support upon voluntary subscriptions, 
and though they were relatively generous they were never sufficient, 



1:he catholic university. 23 

despite Newman's vigorous campaign. He even projected a visit 
to America, which was not carried out, but considerable sums were 
collected in the United States. He felt keenly the disadvantages 
of his new institution in competition with Trinity College, the 
State-endowed Queen's colleges, and even with Oxford. The State 
refused to grant a charter to the Catholic University, therefore it 
could not confer degrees recognized by the State. This intensified 
the opposition between it and the Queen's colleges. The Pope had 
already forbidden priests to teach in the 'atter. The thought that 
the Pope should be asked to withdraw his censure of them in order 
that the State might recognize the Catholic University was not 
acceptable. "Newman felt sure that the Holy See would never 
agree to any plan which mixes up Catholic and Protestant youth, 
let alone the professors." 

Newman's personal views were that the Queen's colleges were one 
of the fruits of " a formidable movement since 1827 among us toward 
assigning in the national life political or civil motives for social and 
personal duties, and thereby withdrawing matters of conduct from 
the jurisdiction of religion. Men are to be made virtuous [by this 
movement] on purely secular motives." He was even anxious for fear 
that his university instead of attracting the sons of Catholics in the 
upper classes in England should be used by the Irish upper classes as 
a preparatory school for Oxford. Though religious tests at that time 
were not abolished at Oxford, it was possible for Ecman Catholics 
to enter. Rome did not prohibit the attendance there until 1865.' 

The story since his day of what is still known as " Newman's 
University " reveals changes in sentiment and action in both church 
and state encouraging to the friends of higher education. Hampered 
for want of funds the imiversity became willing to accept State aid 
but repeatedly failed to secure it. In 1882, when the Eoyal Univer- 
sity of Ireland came into operation, the governing body of the Cath- 
olic University changed its constitution and status. They decided 
to accept partial and indirect State aid through the Royal University 
and to prepare for its degrees. The scope of the Catholic University 
was enlarged on paper so as to include several ecclesiastical colleges. 
The Arts and Science Department in Stephen's Green became " Uni- 
versity College, Dublin," and with the other existing department 
the Medical School, Cecilia Street, became two of six constituent 
colleges of the Catholic University ; the others were the ecclesiastical 
colleges at Maynooth, Blackrock, Carlow, and Clonliffe. Occasional 
meetings of the heads of these institutions were held, but the uni- 
versity was no longer in operation in the ordinary way. Its students 

1 Prohibition was not enforced after 1895. 



24 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

Avere unusually successful in obtaining first-class distinctions at the 
Royal University. Nevertheless, the Irish Catholics were not con- 
tent with anything less than a university able to hold its own with 
Trinity College and the University of Dublin. Their influence co- 
alescing with other causes resulted in the appointment in 1901 of a 
Royal Commission and the ultimate establishment of the National 
University. 

When the National University of Ireland superseded the Royal 
University, in 1909, the former Arts and Science College of the 
Catholic University w^as dissolved. Under the endowed-schools com- 
mission (1886-1895), the medical school had been incorporated by the 
State. Later this school obtained power from the master of the rolls 
to merge the school in the University College, Dublin, of the National 
University, and to make certain special disposal of trust funds. At 
this time a judicial decision was given that the Catholic University 
was still in being and later on might become an active teaching 
institution. It was held that the papal power to confer degrees was 
intact though the institution never had such power from the State. 

The separate power to confer degrees in theology, received from 
Rome by Maynooth College, in 1895, its centennial year, continues 
to be exercised sparingly. 

Upon the death, about 1907, of the rector of the Catholic Univer- 
sity, the Right Rev. Monsignor Gerald Molloy, who was also a senator 
of the Royal University, no anouncement was made of the appoint- 
ment of a successor. It is understood, however, that the Most Rev. 
Patrick O'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, was elected by the bishops. 
He has also been coopted a member of the governing body of Uni- 
versity College, Dublin. This is a signal of the happy coalescence 
of the Catholic University in the National University of Ireland, and 
of concord in education after two generations of controversy between 
church and state. Each has learned by experience to concede posi- 
tions for which it had fought. Each has learned more of the nature 
of a university, of its tolerance, and that it can not flourish with 
external interference. It is proven that without legal formalities, 
through mutual faith, and the choice of officers and teachers possessed 
of university spirit, church and state may cooperate in an institution 
serving both. 

In harmony with the American doctrine neither church nor state 
asserts a monopoly in education and both recognize religion as essen- 
tial to character and university training. 



CHAPTER III. -THE STATE PREDECESSORS OF THE NATIONAL 
UNIVERSITY. 

The National Universit}' of Ireland is the latest organization out- 
side South Africa of a national and federal university. Retarded 
by the University of Dublin (Trinity College), indirectly accelerated 
by the Catholic University, complicated by political changes, it has 
been not less than TO years in the making. 

The genealogy of the university may be traced from the system 
of national education which resulted in the creation in 1831 of the 
Board of Commissioners of National Education. From this scheme 
sprang (1845-1819) the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Gal- 
way, which begat in 1850 the Queen's University, which begat in 
1882 the Eoyal University of Ireland, which begat in 1909 the Na- 
tional University of Ireland and the Queen's University of Belfasr. 
The real genesis of these institutions goes back to the great movement 
in the eighteenth century which resulted in the French and American 
revolutions, and in the reform measures in England culminating in 
the reform bill of 1832. This movement found fertile soil in Ire- 
land; in the keen interest manifested there in elementary education. 
The interest had been fostered by voluntary societies whose schools 
had been filled with national and proselytizing zeal and supplied 
with public money. 

We have begun our genealogy of the National University with the 
plan ^ for national education in Ireland submitted to the Government 
(Dec. 9, 1830) by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Wyse, M. P., for 
the County Tipperary. After the act of Catholic emancipation 
(1829) Mr. Wyse was among the Roman Catholics who were for the 
first time returned to the English Parliament. He was happily 
fitted to prepare the scheme and to be listened to by the Government 
because he was a trusted native Irish leader, a Roman Catholic, a 
graduate of Trinity College, and, having lived abroad, a student of 
educational systems there, particularly of the French state system, 
which he considered a beneficent outcome of the revolution. 

Mr. Wyse's plan rested upon the principles that religion is the 
foundation of all education and that " nationalism not sectarianism 
should be the first article of our connnon character." Among his 

1 Wyse, Winifrede M. Notes on Education Refioim in Ireland. Compiled from Speeches, 
Letters, etc., of Rt. Hon. Sir Thomas Wyse, K. C. B. Waterford, C. P. Redmond & Co., 
1901. 

25 



26 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

specific recommendations were the following: Catholics and Prot- 
estants were to be educated in the same school to prepare future 
citizens for a common country. Religious instruction was to be 
given regularly to the pupils of each persuasion by their pastors. 
The schoolmasters were to be chosen by the parents in each parish 
from a teachers' school under the superintendence of a board of na- 
tional education. This board was to be composed of Protestants and 
Catholics, of clergy and laity. In addition to the elementary schools 
thus provided for he wished to establish an academy in every county 
for the education of the middle classes of society. The courses of 
study were to include the experimental sciences, and agricultural 
and commercial chemistry. Above these academies he proposed to 
have a college in each of the four provinces "managed by a com- 
mittee representative of the interests of the several counties of the 
provinces." 

These colleges were to be subsidiary to a nationalized teaching uni- 
versity. This was to be done by enlarging Trinity College or by 
founding a second university. He apprehended the danger of plac- 
ing a university " under the jurisdiction of any public board " but 
realized the importance that each part of the whole system of national 
education should be brought into cooperation with the others. There- 
fore he suggested that the university should constitute a council to 
communicate with the national board or that powers limited to their 
proper purposes be given to a university board. Mr. Wyse received 
approval of his scheme from many Roman Catholic prelates and dis- 
tinguished Protestants. In 1831 the Hon. E. G. Stanley, the chief 
secretary for Ireland, adopted the part of the scheme dealing with 
elementary education and secured the Government's financial sup- 
port.^ The Board of National Education was created — at present 
consisting of 20 members, one-half Catholics and one-half Protes- 
tants. These are unpaid except for the Resident Commissioner. 
They are appointed by the Lord Lieutenant and are independent of 
the House of Commons except for their annual grant. The impor- 
tant parts of Mr. Wyse's scheme dealing with university and second- 
ary education were shelved. With the passage of the years his ad- 
vanced ideas are being realized one by one. 

Mr. Wyse, as chairman of a " select committee on foundation 
schools and education in Ireland of the House of Commons," and by 
his untiring activities, became the virtual father of the Queen's 
Colleges established under an act of 1845 and opened in 1849 in Bel- 
fast, Cork, and Galway. The name may be traced to an address to 
Queen Victoria in 1838, unanimously adopted at Cork " by the repre- 
sentatives of all religions, professions, orders, and parties," wnth the 

»At first $150,000 a year. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 27 

" hope that the commencement of her reign will be made memorable 
by the establishment of institutions which will place an extensive 
course of education within the reach of all." The colleges were 
strictly undenominational. The professors were not to make any 
statements disrespectful to the religious convictions of their classes, 
or to introduce political or polemical subjects. A grant of $500,000 
was made for sites and buildings for the three colleges, and each col- 
lege received $35,000 a year for maintenance. Each institution had 
a faculty of arts, of law, and of medicine. For the corporate life of 
the colleges the presidents were provided with apartments in the 
colleges and common libraries opened for the students. Dean's halls 
for those coming from a distance were established under the auspices 
of " Deans of Residence " of different religious denominations. 

The colleges did good work, but they failed to " solve the problem 
of providing a generally acceptable teaching university. They re- 
ceived little support from the Government that founded them." The 
new departure of handing over education to the State from the 
church or voluntary corporations was met with great prejudice. 
Mr. Wyse, in advocating the original legislation in the House of 
Commons, had the epithet " godless " hurled at his scheme by " a 
Low-Churchman of the most extreme type" (Sir Robert Inglis). 
Suspicions of dangers to faith and morals were cherished by church- 
men of Protestant denominations and in 1850 the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy changed from support of the colleges to opposition.^ 

Each of the colleges was an independent foundation reporting 
directly to the Crown. Each had a board of visitors, upon which 
were the chief secretary for Ireland, justices of the law courts, presi- 
dent of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the 
moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 
Ireland. Each had a corporate bodj'^ consisting of the president of 
the college and the full professors. Associated with the president 
was the college council, consisting of representative professors. 

The college at Belfast had the largest attendance, ranging from 
about 300 to nearly 600 students, of whom the overwhelming ma- 
jority were Presbyterians, but always with a sprinkling of Catholics. 
Cork came next, ranging from 200 to 400, with a majority of 
Catholics, but always with a good representation of the churches of 
Ireland and England. Galway was the smallest, with an attendance 
from 100 to 200, a minority of whom were Catholics. 

The maximum attendance in all the colleges was reached at the 
moment of transition (1881-82) from the Queen's University to the 
Royal University. The colleges came to have the modest sum of 
about $20,000 for scholarships and exhibitions. 

iCf. supra, p. 19. 



28 HIGHEK EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

In 1850 Queen's University was incorporated to complement 
the three Queen's colleges. The function of the university was to 
examine for degrees students who had qualified by attending the 
colleges. 

From this point the university movement runs nearly parallel to 
that of the University of London, after which it has been largely 
patterned. Mr. Wyse in his advocacy of the Queen's colleges and 
university at the beginning held up the example of the University 
of London in which the Stonyhurst Roman Catholic College and 
the Church of England King's College among others dwelt peace- 
ably together as approved institutions in the University of London. 
As we have seen, Irish conditions did not permit the same success 
as in London. 

In 1866 a supplementary charter was given to Queen's University 
granting the right to examine and confer degrees upon students who 
had not been educated at the Queen's colleges, but it was upset in 
the courts.^ London, overwhelmed by the number of colleges of 
unequal rank which had been approved, was driven to take a similar 
step and became a mere examining body.^ The status of the Queen's 
colleges as State institutions delayed until 1882 the degeneration of 
the Queen's University into a board of examiners. 

The continued agitations and religious difficulties surrounding 
Queen's University resulted in its being succeeded by the Royal Uni- 
versity of Ireland, chartered in 1880. It was empowered to confer 
degrees in all faculties except theology upon the passing of its exami- 
nations. No residence in any college was required nor attendance 
upon any lectures except in the case of medical students. The old 
Government annual grants to Queen's University of about $20,000 
were increased from the funds of the disestablished (1869) Church 
of Ireland to $100,000. 

The corporation consisted of a chancellor, senate, and graduates. 
Of the 36 senators the maximum number of 30 was nominated by 
the Crown and six by the convocation of the university. The 
matriculation and the first university examinations were held at 
different local centers; the other examinations at Dublin only. The 
numbers presenting themselves rose to between 2,000 and 3,000, as 
compared with some 700, the highest number in Queen's University. 

Fellowships, scholarships, and prizes were assigned to persons in 
the chief institutions which gave instruction for the university exam- 
ination. In view of the number of candidates appearing, by a tacit 
understanding half of the fellowships and scholarships were filled 
by University College (of the Catholic University), Stephen's 

1 Balfour, op. cit., p. 269. 

»Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 08. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 29 

Green, Dublin; the remainder were distributed among the Queen's 
colleges and one was given to Magee College, Londonderry. The last 
is primarily a Presbyterian theological college with an arts course 
which is undenominational. 

An offer of fellowships to the students at Maynooth, the Roman 
Catholic Theological Seminary, was declined by the bishops. Other- 
wise the Catholics availed themselves of the examinations and ac- 
cepted the offices and fellowships of the new university. At length 
it seemed as if the religious difficulties which had surrounded higher 
education had been overcome. On the disestablishment of the 
Church of Ireland (Episcopal) in 1869 all denominational endow- 
ments from the Government ceased, and existing interests were com- 
pensated.^ 

The first statutes of the Royal University opened all degrees, hon- 
ors, exhibitions, prizes, and scholarships to women. Consequently 
in 1882 Queen's College, Belfast, followed by the other two colleges, 
matriculated women and admitted them to classes and scholarships. 

The university committed the matter of examinations to a board 
of fellows, elected by the senate in equal numbers from the non- 
denominational and the Roman Catholic colleges. 

It became a source of complaint against the university that prac- 
tically no extern examiners were appointed. 

The reaction against a university as a mere examining body with 
nonresidential students, which resulted in the reconstruction of the 
University of London in 1900,^ swept into Ireland. 

It combined with other factors and resulted in the setting up 
of a royal commission (1901-3) "to inquire into the present position 
of higher, general, and technical education in Ireland, outside of 
Trinity College, and to report as to what reforms, if necessary, are 
desirable in order to render that education adequate to the needs of 
the Irish people."^ 

The commission condemned the system of the Royal University 
of conferring degrees upon the result of examinations alone and also 
the indirect method of endowment of colleges by fellowships. It 
urged that the Royal University should be restored to the proper 
ideal of a university by being made a teaching institution, in which 
attendance at lectures should be required, and the corporate life of 
the students encouraged. 

1 Trinity College received about $703,300 as compensation for the loss of advowsons ; 
Maynooth about $1,845,200, being 14 times the previous annual grants ; Belfast Aca- 
demical Institution, a college for the education of Presbyterian ministers, " about $219,880, 
being 14 times the grant, and $75,000 for the college buildings." 

2 Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 68-72. 
»r P., Cd. 1483. 



30 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The Queen's colleges were to become constituent colleges of the uni- 
versity, together with a fourth — a Roman Catholic college in Dub- 
lin — which should also receive Government support. 

The Catholic University School of Medicine was to be absorbed 
in it. Belfast was to be more liberally supported, but Cork and 
Gal way to receive rather less until they showed greater growth. 
The policy of residential halls for men and women was to be ex- 
tended. 

Though these recommendations were not immediately adopted, 
most of them were carried out later in the establishment of the 
National University of Ireland. 

By the terms of reference the Royal Commission's inquiry and 
consequently its recommendations were " outside of Trinity Col- 
lege." In an age of combination for the sake of efficiency and 
economy, and with the incoming of a new government at West- 
minster, a final attempt was made to include Trinity College in a 
reconstituted University of Dublin in which should be merged the 
Royal University, the Catholic University, and the Queen's col- 
leges.^ The strong opposition of Trinity promised the defeat of 
this project which Mr. Bryce had brought forward in 1907. His 
successor, Mr. Birrell, modified the plan leaving out Trinity. By 
his measure the National University of Ireland succeeded the Royal 
University, and Queen's College, Belfast, was erected into a uni- 
versity. 

iCf. supra, p. 18. 



CHAPTER IV.— THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 

Under the Irish universities act of 1908, King Edward VII 
chartered the National University of Irehind, having its seat in 
Dublin, and the Queen's University of Belfast.^ He dissolved the 
Royal University of Ireland on October 31. 1909, and founded a 
new college known as the University College, Dublin, into which 
were received the University College (Catholic), St. Stephen's 
Green, and the Cecelia Street Medical School. From the same date 
Queen's College, Cork, and Queen's College, Galway, became Uni- 
versity College, Cork, and University College, Galway, and they 
were made with the new University College, Dublin, constituent 
colleges of the National University. 

In effecting changes in higher education British good sense and 
justice impress an American. Scrupulous care is taken to preserve 
the continuity of the institutions and to keep or compensate the 
officers and professors. The transition from the Royal University 
to the National University of Ireland was gradual, lest the insti- 
tution should suffer, as it were, from nervous shock. Though an 
" appointed day " was set for the dissolution of the Royal Univer- 
sity and the putting into operation of the new, the rights of grad- 
uates and students of the former were preserved in the latter. 
Provisional appointments, continuing as far as possible the old 
officers, were made for seven years. 

All religious tests in the university and its constituent colleges are 
prohibited. No State money can be used for the provision or main- 
tenance of any place of religious worship or to pay for religious 
teaching or study. There is a proviso that the university may rec- 
ognize any teacher in theology as a professor of the university so 
long as the professorship is maintained entirely by means of private 
benefaction. But no student shall be compelled to attend any such 
religious instruction, nor shall such a professor be eligible for mem- 
bership of the general board of studies or of any faculty other than 
the faculty of theology. In accordance with this provision, a pro- 
fessorship of Catholic theology has been endowed by the Roman 
Catholic archbishops and bisliops of Ireland. 

Every professor " other than a professor of theology or divinity 
recognized by the senate " has to sign a declaration that he will not 

»Cf. infra, p. 52. 

31 



32 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

" make any statement or use any language that would be disrespect- 
ful to the religious opinions of any of my class." 

The organization of the university, which harkens back to that 
of the University of Wales and that of London, has modifications 
strengthening the university as over against the colleges. 

As in the University of Wales, there is no university teaching staff 
apart from the staffs of the constituent colleges. 

The visitor of the university is the King, acting through a board 
of visitors. The presidents, professors, and lecturers of the colleges, 
if removed from office by the university, have the right of appeal to 
the King's board of four visitors. If the visitors do not unanimously 
concur in the removal, it is not to take effect. 

In Wales the King is the visitor through the Lord President of 
the Council. 

In respect to the membership of the university the National 
University of Ireland follows Wales. 

" Women are eligible equally with men to be members of the uni- 
versity or of its colleges and to hold any office or enjoy any advan- 
tages of the institutions." 

In both Ireland and Wales the chancellor of the university is 
elected for life, in Ireland by convocation, in Wales by the court 
subject to the approval of the visitor. 

The vice chancellor, " the chief executive officer having supervision 
over educational and other arrangements of the university," is elected 
by the senate from among its members and holds office for such 
period, not exceeding five years, as the senate may determine, and 
is eligible for reelection. 

In Wales the principal of each university in rotation is vice chan- 
cellor, holding office for two years. 

In Ireland the supreme governing body is the senate of only 
35 members, corresponding in functions to the large university 
court of some hundred members in Wales.^ 

The Irish senate consists of the chancellor, the presidents of the 
constituent colleges, four members nominated by the King, of whom 
one at least shall be a woman, six members elected by the governing 
body of University College, Dublin, of whom three at least are mem- 
bers of the academic council of the college, four members elected by 
the governing body of University College, Cork, two at least being 
members of the academic council of the college, four members elected 
under the same conditions from Galway, the registrar, eight mem- 
bers elected by convocation, and four coopted members. The term of 
office of elected members is five years. 

The general board of studies in the National University of Ire- 
land corresponds to the senate in Wales.^ It consists of the vice 

iCf. infra, p. 77. ' Ct. infra, p. 77. 



THE ^^ATIOXAL UNIVERSITY. 33 

chancellor, the presidents of the constituent colleges, and one mem- 
ber elected by the senate from lists of names submitted by the 
academic council of each constituent college from among the univer- 
sity professors and lecturers of each college in each of its faculties, 
and in addition one or more representatives, determined by the 
senate, of recognized teachers of any recognized college and at 
least three extern examiners. 

The faculties in the National University of Ireland are eight as 
over against six in Wales.' Ireland is peculiar in having faculties of 
philosophy and sociology, of Celtic studies, of engineering and archi- 
tecture, and of commerce, and Wales in having faculties of music and 
of theology. Both institutions cover essentially the same departments 
of study. Both include education, engineering or applied science, 
and agriculture. Ireland is singular in having the faculty of com- 
merce and one of Celtic studies in which Irish is made a compulsory 
study.* 

In the University of Ireland each faculty consists of the vice chan- 
cellor, a dean appointed annually by the members of the faculty 
from among the professors in the subjects of the faculty, and of the 
professors and lecturers. 

Convocation is the last authority of the Xational University of 
Ireland, which corresponds to the guild of graduates in Wales and 
to convocation in London. It consists of the chancellor, the vice 
chancellor, the members of the senate, the professors and lecturers, 
and the registered graduates who are enrolled as members upon the 
payment of a fee of 5 shillings. The convocation like the guild of 
graduates in Wales is limited to discussion and making representa- 
tions to the university authorities on any matter affecting the uni- 
A-ersity. It has powers, beyond those of the guild in Wales and like 
those in London, to elect the chancellor and eight of its members as 
representatives on the senate. 

The method of appointment of professors and lecturers and the 
regulations for their tenure of office are designed to rest appoint- 
ments upon merit and to safeguard academic freedom. The statutes 
as to the creation of positions are designed to obtain a considered 
judgment upon the multiplication of instructorships. After the 
period of provisional appointments in the new university (ending 
July 31, 1916), the senate fills vacancies subject to the following 
conditions: The president of the constituent college concerned is to 
ascertain if it is the opinion of its governing body that the office 

1 In Ireland — arts, philosophy and sociology, Celtic studies, science, law, medicine, en- 
gineering and architecture, commerce. In Wales — arts or letters, science, music, law, 
medicine, theology or divinity. 

»Cf. infra, pp. 35, 66. 

89725°— 17 3 



34 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

should be continued or modified and shall make a statute accordingly 
and inform the vice chancellor. The vice chancellor is to lay the 
matter before the senate, but in the event of any statute in respect of 
the vacant office the senate shall defer action until the expiration of 
not less than 40 days after the statute has been laid before both 
Houses of Parliament. If the place is to be filled and if the statute 
shall not be disallowed by the King, upon the presentation of an 
address in either House of Parliament or by the Lord Lieutenant, by 
order in council, upon a presentation of a petition the report and 
recommendations of a governing body are to be placed before the 
chancellor by the university registrar. The chancellor submits ordi- 
narily not less than three names of candidates elected by the college 
governing body to the senate, who make the appointment. This 
system of appointment is in striking contrast with that of Wales in 
which each constituent college is free to create departments and ap- 
point professors and lecturers. 

A full professor is to hold office subject to good conduct and the 
due fulfillment of his duties until he attains the age of 65, and may 
thereafter be continued annually for five further years. Lecturers 
are appointed for periods of seven years and are eligible for re- 
appointment until they are 65 years of age, and may be continued in 
office for five further years. 

The senate may recognize a college in Ireland in which matricu- 
lated students of the university may pursue approved courses of 
study of a university type under teachers recognized by the senate 
for the purpose. Such a college must satisfy the senate that it does 
not give secondary education and that it meets university standards 
as to financial support, qualifications of teachers, and equipment. 

The consent of the constituent college, in whose district the 
college to be recognized is situated, must be given and a satisfac- 
tory report obtained from the university's general board of studies 
or inspectors. The senate may recognize the college in whole or 
in respect of particular subjects and for a limited time. 

The senate may also, as in London, recognize individual teachers. 
The recognition of a teacher may be withdrawn at any time by the 
senate, but removal from office of a president, a university pro- 
fessor, or a lecturer of a constituent college or other officer of the 
university is a grave matter. The senate may not proceed except 
upon due cause shown in an application of the governing body of 
the college, nor without two months notice accompanied by the par- 
ticulars of the charge against the person and an opportunity for a 
hearing in his defense. 

The National University is made predominantly a teaching uni- 
versity, as over against the Royal University— an examining insti- 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 35 

tution — by the requirement similar to that in Wales of " an ap- 
proved course of study," approved by the senate as qualifying for 
a degree or other academic distinction. The course of study, how- 
ever, may be pursued in the university, in a constituent or recog- 
nized college, or partly in one or more of them. 

There is a survival of the extern student of the Royal University 
and an open door for some work outside a college in the proviso 
that a component part of an approved course of study may be 
pursued "partly in such other place as may be prescribed by regu- 
lations."' This prescribed instruction may be in the form of lec- 
tures, catechetical or clinical instruction, practical work in labora- 
tories, shops, or field, and research in libraries, museums or among 
monuments within or outside the United Kingdom. The practice 
of holding examinations at " centers " outside the colleges may be 
another survival from the Royal University. The " duty of equaliz- 
ing standards of knowledge " is enforced by a common matriculation 
examination, by regulations accepted by all the bodies concerned, 
and by associating with the teachers an extern examiner appointed 
by the senate in each subject or group of subjects. 

For the matriculation examination all students must pass in five 
subjects arranged in six groups. The peculiarity of the examination 
is that Irish is required.^ Students not born in Ireland, and other 
students whose home residence has been outside Ireland during the 
three years immediately preceding their matriculation may enter 
without Irish, but are expected to attend a course in Irish literature 
and history prior to obtaining any degree in the university. English 
is another absolute requirement. Latin and Greek are requisite only 
for students entering for degrees in arts, philosophy, and Celtic 
studies. Since 1914 candidates entering for the first time are obliged 
to pass in all five subjects at one and the same examination. In con- 
trast with Oxford, Cambridge, Trinity College. Dublin, and Wales 
no student can begin his course of study for a degree in the univer- 
sity until he has completed his matriculation. In common with the 
new English universities attention is given to the raising of standards 
of admission. 

As in all British universities there are distinct pass and honor 
courses for degrees.- 

The ordinary length of the course for a bachelor's degree is at least 
nine terms, i, e., three academic years. 

* 1. Irish. 2. Latin or Greek. 3. Any modern language approved by the Senate. 4. Eng- 
lish. 5. Mathematics or natural philosophy. 6. English, ancient and modern languages, 
history and geography, mathematics, and sciences. 

»Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 234-235. 



36 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

There is the usual range of degrees in the several faculties, with 
the unique addition, under the influence of the Gaelic League, of 
the degrees of master and doctor of Celtic studies.^ 

Ireland Avith Wales and the new English universities has aban- 
doned the custom of the old universities and of Trinity College of 
?'dmitting a B, A. of three years' standing to his M. A. degree upon 
the simple payment of a fee. The candidate for the degree of M. A. 
must pursue an " approved post-graduate course " for an academic 
year and present an acceptable dissertation, or two years after ob- 
taining his B. A. degree present a dissertation and pass a special 
examination. 

In Wales the conditions for the degree of M. A. are somewhat 
stiffer. The " qualifying period of study " is not less than two aca- 
demic years. A scheme of study is required in one department con- 
sisting of two parts, a " general and a special study." The " general 
study " must not be completed before the end of the first year, nor the 
" special study " less than one year after the completion of the " gen- 
eral study." A dissertation must be presented on one subject of the 
" special study." A candidate wlio has completed an Honor's Course 
for the degree of B. A. is deemed to have completed his " general 
study " and is permitted to finish his '• special study " in one academic 
year, but not before the end of the fifth academic year after he 
entered on his scheme of study for his B. A. Residence, however, in 
a constituent college of the university is not required. 

Wales set the example of offering a degree of M. A. in recognition 
of original research in arts, or in science, or in laws. Any college 
approved for the purpose ma}^ present a graduate qualified to pursue 
a scheme of advanced study or research in a constituent college of 
the university. The scheme must be pursued for three years in the 
university, but may be reduced to two years if the candidate has pur- 
sued studies qualifying for a degree in the approved university. The 
candidature must be sustained by the submission to the university of 
work embodying the methods and results of the researches in which 
the degree is sought. 

In both Ireland and Wales the doctors' degrees are not conferred 
until at least three years after the admission to an initial degree. In 
Ireland examinations are required and the presentation of a disserta- 
tion embodying the result of the candidate's independent research. 
As a matter of fact, in neither university has an advanced degree 

1 (1) B. A., B. Mus., M. A., D. Litt, D. Mus. ; (2) D. Phil. ; (3) M. Litt. Celt., D. Litt. 
Celt. (Master and Doctor of Celtic Studies) ; (4) B. Sc, B. Agr. Sc, M. Sc, M. Agr. Sc, 
D. Sc. ; (5) LL. B., LL. D. ; (6) M B., B. Ch., B. A. O. (Bachelor of Obstetrics), B. SC. 
Pub. Health, M. Ch., M. A. O., M. D., Sc. Pub. Health, B. D. S. (Bachelor of Dental 
Surgery), M. D. S. ; (7) B. K., B. Arch., :\I. E., M. Arch.; (8) B. Comm., M. Comm. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 37 

higher than that of M. A. been taken. Research, however, is speci- 
fically named as an object in the plan of each of the institutions. 

The two institutions have powers by charter to examine and in- 
spect schools and other educational institutions and to grant certifi- 
cates of proficiency. These powers have not been exercised, being 
in the hands of other bodies. In Ireland inspection of secondary 
schools is vested in an unpaid board of commissioners of intermediate 
education established under a Parliamentary act of 1878. By an 
act of 1900 power was given to the board to appoint inspectors of 
schools. The board's examinations superseded after the closing of 
the Queen's Universit}^ (1879) a system of middle-class examina- 
tions resembling the English local examinations Avhich Queen's Uni- 
versity had established in 1860. The board has large public funds to 
distribute among the schools, and though the principle is recognized 
that the university is the proper source of inspection it is not likely 
to perform the function unless some large scheme of the coordination 
of educational forces such as Mr. Wyse dreamed of is adopted by 
Government. 

In Wales the case is somewhat similar, but the university has the 
advantage of representation in the secondary education bodies. A 
representative of some one of the three Welsh university colleges is 
on each county governing body. The Central Welsh Board for In- 
termediate Education is the recognized organization for the inspec- 
tion of such schools as may be desirous of inspection. The university 
has representation upon this board. It is noticeable in the appoint- 
ment of the Royal Commission on the University of AVales, the Cen- 
tral Welsh Board, or the relations of the university to it are not speci- 
fied in the terms of reference. The National University of Ireland 
has not entered upon university extension even in the form of co- 
operation with the Worker's Education Association,^ though Queen's 
University, Belfast, has begun such work and the university colleges 
ox Wales have developed it. This fact is probably accounted for by 
the difference in character of the constituencies of the institutions. 

There is no faculty of education in the National University of 
Ireland, in Queen's University, Belfast, or in the three university 
colleges of Wales. There is, however, a rapidly increasing interest 
in the training of elementary and especially of secondary teachers 
in the universities. All these institutions have professors of educa- 
tion, chairs being created in Queen's University, Belfast, and Univer- 
sity College, Galway, in 1914-15. In Ireland the first examination 
in the history and theory of education was held in 1898 and in the 
same year the Royal University created a diploma in teaching for 

1 Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 252-253. 



38 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IBBLAND AND WALES, 

the graduates of that institution. At the same date a training col- 
lege was opened for women teachers in secondary schools at the 
Ursuline Convent, Waterford, which was recognized by Cambridge. 
The first professorship in education in Ireland dates from 1905 in 
Trinity College. In each of the institutions in Ireland there is only 
a professor in the department of education, whereas in Wales there 
is a staff ranging from seven in University College, Cardiff, to three 
in University College, Bangor.^ 

The education department in University College, Dublin, leads all 
others in Ireland in attendance especially in postgraduate courses. 
In 1915-16 it had 44 graduate out of 70 postgraduate students in all 
the 8 faculties of the college. 

The faculties of law in all the institutions in Ireland and Wales 
are small and the graduates few. This is due to the British system 
of legal education through the Inns of Court and Law Societies.- 

King's Inn, Dublin, corresponds to the Inns of Court, London. 
The professors of law, excepting in the University of Dublin, are for 
the most part also engaged in practice, and are part-time men. 

All the institutions in Ireland have law faculties, but in Wales, 
University College, Bangor, has none; University College, Cardiff, 
only a lecturer in bookkeeping and trust accounts and another 
teacher; and Aberystwyth, that had a professor and two assistant 
lecturers, is suspending the instruction during the war. 

All the universities and university colleges in Ireland have courses 
in medicine, but in Wales only Cardiff has a medical course.^ Trin- 
ity College, Dublin, has the oldest and strongest school,* followed by 
University College, Dublin, and University College, Cork. These 
institutions all have extensive hospital privileges. They also include, 
according to the British practice, dentistry as a subsection of medi- 
cine.^ Trinity College, Dublin, has a combined arts and medical 
curriculum and also combined arts and dental curriculum. Candi- 
dates for diplomas in medicine, surgery, and obstetric science must 
be matriculated in medicine, and must have completed two years in 
arts and five years in medical studies. Diplomates on completing the 
course in arts and proceeding to the degree of B. A. may be admitted 
to the degree of bachelor of medicine, etc. To become a doctor of 
medicine one must pass the final examinations in medicine, surgery, 
and midwifery, read a thesis or undergo a special examination and be 
of M. A. standing. In the University of Dublin in order to obtain 

1 Concerning training colleges and university departments of education in England 
and Wales cf. Judd. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1914, No. 35, pp. 12, 27, 28. 

2 Cf. Richards. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1915, No. 18. 
''Cf. infra, p. 80. 

*Cf. supra, p. 14. 

s Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 114, 208. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 39 

a degree of bachelor of dental science one must have completed the 
course for the arts degree of the university and have spent at least 
four years in the school of dentistry. The degree of master in dental 
science is awarded after a further examination and can not be taken 
until the end of a fifth year of study. Either of these degrees en- 
titles the holder to be registered as a licensed dental practitioner. 
The way is open to students in the three university colleges to pro- 
ceed to the degrees and certificates in medicine, science, and public 
health in the University of London, and to the diplomas conferred 
on candidates who have passed the examinations held by the conjoint 
board in Dublin, Edinburgh, and London. 

The courses and degrees in music are included in the faculty of 
arts in Ireland whereas in Wales there is a separate university faculty 
of music which is quite consonant with the national attention to 
music in Wales. 

In both countries the courses and degrees in agriculture are in- 
cluded in the faculty of science. 

Ireland emphasizes engineering and architecture by the organiza- 
tion of a separate faculty while in Wales these subjects are included 
in the faculty of science. 

The secular and nonsectarian character of each of the universities 
as State institutions is insured by their charters. Nevertheless, with- 
out evasion of the law, each institution is able to maintain the ancient 
ideal of a university in rounding out its faculties with a faculty of 
theology or its equivalent.^ In Ireland, as yet, no faculty of theology 
has been established. The Irish universities act (1908) contem- 
plates the possibility of such a faculty in laying down the limitations 
that attendance upon theological teaching shall not be compulsory 
and that the members of the faculty of theology shall not be eligible 
for membership in the gejieral board of studies or in any other 
faculty. A beginning of theological instruction has been made by 
the private endowment of the professorship of catholic theology, 
and by the recognition of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. No theo- 
logical degrees have been conferred by the university. This is not 
necessary so far as Roman Catholics are concerned as Maynooth 
enjoys Papal powers to confer degrees.^ 

One great secret of the promised success of the universities and 
colleges in Ireland is the wisdom shown in the appointments of the 
administrators by the original Royal Commissioners and in the ar- 
rangements for the future representation of the predominant friendly 
and diverse religious and political interests of their respective 
localities. 

iCf. infra, p. 79. 

2 For arrangements for theological instruction in Wales, cf. infra, p. 79. 



40 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

This is abundantly illustrated. The chancellor of the university 
is the present Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, the vice chan- 
cellor is a physician, the pro- vice chancellors, the principals of the 
university colleges are, one a Presbyterian layman and the other two 
Roman Catholic physicians. The other members of the senate are 
prominent ecclesiastics and members of different professions. It is 
noteworthy that though the Roman Catholics predominate there are 
representatives of different churches and parties and the laity are in 
the majority. In the election recently held upon the expiry (1916) 
of the provisional organization of the institutions by the commis- 
sioners the tradition they established is maintained. 

It is significant that in the election of senators by the graduates 
of the whole university in 1914 seven of the eight places were secured 
by professors, one of whom was a Jesuit professor, two Protestant 
professors, and the rest Catholic laymen. 

In the second election to the governing body of the University 
College, Dublin, by its graduates there was a total defeat of non- 
academic candidates. All six elected were from the college staff. 
A Jesuit headed the poll, follow ed by three laymen and two women 
professors. In Cork a woman professor headed the list out of four 
elected. In Galway out of four a woman professor was also elected. 
Before this only one woman professor was elected in Dublin, one in 
Galway, and none in Cork. These elections were not due to the 
voting strength of women graduates, e. g., in Dublin they are but 
one-sixth of the whole. 

In the Queen's University, of Belfast, in accordance with the re- 
ligious preferences of the population, there is a predominance of 
Presbyterians. It is noteworthy that a special lectureship is added 
in scholastic philosophy and filled by a Roman Catholic priest for 
the accommodation of Roman Catholic students. 

In an election last year by the senate of the National University 
to fill a position in philosophy a layman was chosen out of three can- 
didates despite the fact that the others were priests strongly sup- 
ported by ecclesiastical influence. 

In short, there is ground to believe that all the universities of 
Ireland through the mediation of the State and the growth of the 
university idea will be in fact, as they now are on paper, nonsectarian 
and nonpartisan like the State universities and older endowed uni- 
versities of America. It does not militate against this fact that the 
membership of a university will be in faith and politics largely 
what its constituency is.^ The obligation to the State and the uni- 

1 It has been estimated that the attendance of Roman Catholics at Trinity College has 
not equaled 6 per cent since 1871. In Cork, in 1912-13, there were about 20 per cent 
of Protestant students ; in Dublin, 98 per cent Catholic, 1 per cent Protestant, and 1 per 
cent non-Christian (India) ; Galway, formerly attended by Presbyterians from Ulster, is 
now overwhelmingly Catholic; Queen's, Belfast, not above 4J. per cent Catholic. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 41 

versity world, to say notliing of the power of the State to intervene, 
put an institution consisting almost wholly of one church or party 
upon its mettle to observe scrupulously its charter and statutes. This 
has been done the more easily since a way has been found to have a 
theological faculty in a university, but not of it, without compro- 
mising church or state. The churches have been able to change 
completely their attitude toward secular universities since 1850. 
In that year the Koman Catholic hierarchy by a narrow majority 
banned the secular Queen's University, and they now bless the secu- 
lar National University. 

The Established Church (Episcopal), then virtually in complete 
control of Trinity College, Dublin, also looked askance at a State 
university, and the Presbyterians of Belfast were suspicious of it.^ 

Whether the National University as a federal institution with 
constituent colleges in different localities is permanent or an inter- 
mediate stage toward the development of universities at different 
centers depends upon the success of the present well-devised scheme 
with its checks and balances, and perhaps upon the growth of the 
local centers and of the idea of municipal universities. The argu- 
ments for and against a federal university were carefully considered 
by the Royal Commission of 1901-1903, by the proposers of the 
Bryce plan, and by the organizers of the National University under 
Mr. Birrell in 1908. All had in mind the experiments in Victoria 
University and the University of Wales, and all agreed in recom- 
mending the federal system. The testimony is that it has worked 
well during these eight years of its initial period. The confidence 
in its future is such that the institution asked for no guaranties for 
its protection in the home rule bill. The arguments against a 
federal university, wittily called a " sprawling university " by the 
present provost of Trinity College, have ceased to be urged during 
the last two or three years. For a dozen years Cork presented the 
stock arguments against a federal institution and reenforced them by 
efforts for an independent municipal university. When the Royal 
Commission visited Cork, in 1902, a plea was made for the founda- 
tion of a Cork University. The subject was taken up again in 1906 
when a Royal Commission was sitting with reference to Trinity 
College and the University of Dublin, and while legislation on the 
question of Irish university education was pending in 1907-8. The 
old idea for an institution for the south of Ireland, an independent 
university of the Province of Munster, was advanced. The county 
council of Cork and the councils of the three Munster cities, Cork, 
Waterford, and Limerick, passed resolutions favoring such an in- 
stitution. 

1 Cf. supra, p. 27 ; itifra, p. 72. 



42 SIGHBB BDtJCATIOK m IBELAND AND WALES. 

A committee of representatives of different religions per- 
suasions and of various parts of the Province of Munster presented 
a resolution to the commission of 1906 favoring the creation of an 
independent university for Munster. If it became necessary to unite 
the college with other colleges in a single university, they urged 
that " it is of the utmost importance that these colleges should have 
the largest amount of autonomy, and that each should, subject to the 
control and revision of the university, manage its own affairs, draw 
up its own curriculum, conduct its own examinations, and confer 
locally its own degrees." 

They desired that the governing body, which in the Queen's Col- 
lege was of a purely academic character, should be reconstructed so 
as to include representatives of the Province in order to bring the 
college in touch with the different localities. The last two recom- 
mendations were embodied in the constitutions of the university col- 
leges. The movement to found a local university was supported by 
the offer of a fortune, of which $250,000 might be immediately avail- 
able, by a prominent citizen of Cork and his wife.^ In 1908, at a 
a public meeting in Cork, resolutions were passed welcoming the 
prospect of a settlement of the Irish university question by Mr. Bir- 
rell's plan for a national university, but expressing disappointment 
(hat Cork was not to have a separate university. The scheme was 
only accepted as a " temporary settlement " upon the condition that 
"the local college h>as complete autonomy, an effective voice in the 
appointment of its future teachers, and the management of its own 
finances, and is given an adequate representation on the senate of 
the new university and on the body of commissioners who are to 
draw up statutes for that university and its constituent colleges.'' 
Though these conditions were virtually fulfilled the idea of an in- 
dependent university at Cork was presented in several reports of the 
president down to 1913. The example of the new English universi- 
ties,^ particularly of Birmingham, has been powerful upon Cork.^ 

The stock arguments against a federal university are reiterated. 
It is asserted that the administration is wasteful, costing for the 
traveling expenses of the officers and professors over $2,500 annually. 

There is a costly inroad upon the time of the presidents and the 
professors of the Cork and Gahvay colleges in attending the meet- 
ings in Dublin. Delay and cumbrous administration are involved, 
for example, " any modification in the courses of study must be sub- 
mitted to seven different bodies before final approval." A change 
must be passed upon by an individual professor, by a faculty, an 

iCf. The Report of the President of Queen's College, Cork, 1906-7 (Cd. 3655) ; Cf. 
Reports of the President, 1902-3 to 1912-13. 

2Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 116, passim. 

•The president, Sir Bertram C. A. Windle, formerly dean of the medical faculty at 
Blrmlagham, was active In the reconstruction of that institution. 



THE NATIONAL UNIV-ER&ITY. 43 

academic council, and a governing body of a college, and bj a uni- 
versity faculty, general board of studies, and senate. Lastly, de- 
spite the care taken to give equal or proportionate representation to 
the three colleges, rivalry among them has not been altogether elimi- 
nated or the suspicion of the undue prominence of the one or the 
other. One may cite as an illustration an alleged disproportionate 
representation of Cork as compared with Dublin in the university 
senate which occurred in filling a Cork vacancy by the appointment 
of a gentleman living in Dublin.' Something of this kind is quite 
likely to occur, as representative citizens of the Cork or Galway dis- 
trict migrate to Dublin. 

Since 1913 Cork has not pushed its claims to independence. It has 
been flourishing. It has received benefactions but by no means th# 
great sums which would be necessary for a single university in these 
days. It has perhaps found the checks and balances of the National 
University beneficial as over against intense provincial tendencies. 
The mere mention of the possibility of the separation of Cork from 
the federal university put the Galway College on record as in oppo- 
sition. Were it to be supposed that Cork and Dublin were strong 
enough to become independent universities certainly Galway would 
not be. 

On the whole, there is a general feeling that the present univer- 
sity is doing as well as could be expected in the seven years of its 
operation. The standard replies are made by the friends of the 
university to the stock arguments against it. It is contended that 
the annual expenditure of the university in traveling expenses- for 
common meetings is relatively a small sum and makes savings in co- 
ordinating the institutions. The tax of time and travel upon t-he 
officers and teaching staff is conceded, but is believed to be com- 
pensated for by the advantages of change and of meeting with 
their colleagues of other institutions. 

It is said that the delay and cumbrousness of university admin- 
istration and legislation are reduced to a minimimi by the large 
degree of autonomy of the colleges. Now that the university is 
in full operation, required changes are few and important and de- 
liberation by different bodies is desirable. 

An argument which is made fundamental in Wales is that a 
national university is one of the highest expressions of nationalism 
and that its degrees are of more worth and gain a wider recognition 
than those of a single college. 

This point is somewhat vitiated in Ireland because Queen's Uni- 
versity of Belfast is independent, and historically speaking Trinity 
College, Dublin, has claims to be a national university. If the 

1 " Thnes " educational supplement, May 7, 1912. Cited University College. Cork, 
Official Gazette, July, 1912. 



44 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

population aud wealth of the island were to increase sufficiently, 
the time might come for the substitution of a State university in 
each of the four provinces ^ in place of a National University, but 
the examples of the Scottish and the northern universities in Eng- 
land teach that these four universities should be interrelated at 
least by joint boards.- 

1 In 1911 the population of Leinster was 1,162,044 (Dublin) ; Munster, 1,035,495 (Cork) ; 
Ulster, 1,581,696 (Belfast) ; Connaught, 610,984 (Galway). 

aCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 200, 201. 



CHAPTER v.— THE THREE CONSTITUENT COLLEGES. 

The organization of the three constituent colleges of the National 
University of Ireland is essentiall}' the same and is designed to main- 
tain the individuality and in a large measure the autonomy of each 
of the colleges. The general plan of organization follows that of a 
constituent college of the University of London, except that each 
college retains and supervises its funds. The scheme for a constitu- 
ent college of Wales is more complex. At the head of each college is 
a president, in whom are vested powers beyond those of most Ameri- 
can college presidents. He is a member and the presiding officer of 
the governing body, of the academic council, of the faculties, and of 
the committees of these bodies. He receives a salary twice that of 
the largest stipend of any professor, and in addition a residence, 
fuel, and lights. He is appointed by the university's senate, from 
among candidates presented by the governing body of the college. 
He holds office until he has attained the age of 70 years. He has the 
power to fill temporarily vacancies on the teaching staff, to advise 
and remonstrate with teachers, and if necessary w^ith due notice of 
his intention to call the attention of the governing body to their 
conduct. He has full authority to appoint, suspend, and dismiss the 
servants of the college, to exercise supervision over all departments, 
and to discipline the students in conjunction with the academic coun- 
cil which frames regulations to be approved by the governing body. 
The governing bodies of the colleges range from 34 members in 
Dublin to 26 in Galway. They are thoroughly representative of all 
interests concerned. In each case the president is a member and the 
mayors and persons elected by the county councils of the district ad- 
jacent to the college. Persons also are appointed by the Crown, by 
the senate of the university, and professors of the college are elected 
by the academic council. The graduate members of the college 
choose members from among themselves, and other persons are 
coopted.^ 

1 As an example, the governing body at Cork consists of the president of the college, 
three persons nominated by the Crown, four appointed by the senate, four professors of 
the coUege elected by the academic council, four graduates elected by the graduates, the 
mayors of Cork and of Limerick, the chairmen or others representing the county councils 
of Cork, of Waterford, of Kerry, of Limerick, and of Tipperary, and of four persons 
coopted. 

45 



46 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The members of the governing body, other than the ex-officio mem- 
bers, hold office for a period of three years but are eligible for reap- 
pointment. 

The academic council consists of the president and professors of 
the college, with such lecturers as may be coopted by the president 
and the professors. In addition to the power to elect representatives 
on the governing body, the academic council serves as a general 
faculty in all educational matters. 

The particular faculties consist of the professors and lecturers, and 
subject to approval by the governing body and the academic council 
deal with all educational matters pertaining to each faculty. Each 
faculty elects a dean from amongst its members who holds office for 
three years and is eligible for reelection. He keeps a record of the 
conduct of each student and makes a report to the president. 

It is the duty of a faculty to report to the academic council upon 
candidates for teaching posts and examinerships connected with the 
faculty before the candidates are reported on by the academic council 
to the governing body. 

The governing body, in turn, submits the names of not less than 
three candidates to the university senate which makes the appoint- 
ments. The stipends of professorships and lectureships are fixed by 
university statutes. 

Assistants and demonstrators are appointed by the governing body 
of the college upon the recommendations of the academic council. 
The governing body determines the stipend and the term of office. 
In like manner it appoints tutors from among the teaching staff. 
It is the duty of a tutor to supervise the studies of his students. 
The governing body also appoints deans of residence and one or more 
lady superintendents called " officers of residence,'' to exercise super- 
vision over the conduct outside the precincts of the college of the 
students committed to their care. An officer of residence is required 
for each licensed hostel. 

There may be both matriculated and nonmatriculated students. 
The former must have met the entrance requirements of the uni- 
versity, produced a certificate of good character and have signed an 
engagement to observe the rules of the college. The latter need only 
meet tiie last two requirements. 

The National University of Ireland and its constituent colleges 
are almost absolutely state supported. The original Queen's colleges 
at Belfast, Cork, and Galway received by the act of Parliament 
$500,000 for sites and buildings, and an annual grant of $35,000 to 
each college. Queen's University was given about $25,000 annually 
and its successor, the Royal University of Ireland, about $100,000 a 
year out of the funds of the disestablished Church of Ireland. 



THREE CONSTITUENT COLLEGES. 47 

By the Irish universities aet (1908) this $100,000 was divided 
equally between the National University and the Queen's University 
of Belfast. By the same act the new University of Belfast received 
$90,000 per annum ; the new University College at Dublin, $160,000 ; 
the college at Cork, $100,000; and the college at Galway, $60,000. 
For the purchase of lands and provision or improvement of build- 
ings and equipment a maximum sum was set apart for the Uni- 
versity of Belfast of $300,000 ; for the new university and college at 
Dublin, $750,000; for the college at Cork, $60,000; and at Galway, 
$30,000. These Parliamentary grants were given in lump sums to 
the governing bodies of the universities or colleges concerned to be 
expended at their discretion in accordance with the charter or 
statutes. These grants are supplemented by the fees of the students 
and payments made by the intermediate education board and local 
authorities to assist students at the university. The county councils 
and boroughs may also make appropriations for the institutions in 
any year not to exceed the amount which would be produced by a 
rate of one penny in the pound. Even a higher rate may be levied 
with the consent of the local government board. 

Among the features common to the three constituent colleges each 
has some characteristics to be mentioned. University College, Cork, 
which was one of the most vigorous of the original Queen's colleges, 
has stressed its connection with the locality and with the traditions 
of the past. It chose as its site the seat of one of Ireland's ancient 
monasteries and saints, and incribed the legend on its coat of arms, 
" Where Findbarr taught let Munsttr learn." It has always made a 
specialt}^ of its medical school having advantages for clinical instruc- 
tion in the extensive hospitals of the city. In 1912 it opened a school 
of dentistry. In 1904—5 the college opened a new department of 
education for the training of secondary teachers which was the first 
in Ireland to be recognized by the English Board of Education. In 
1912 the faculty of commerce initiated a scheme by which students 
can obtain practical experience in business houses during the sum- 
mer holidays. The experiment has been encouraged by several of the 
county councils making special grants to their scholars to defray 
their expenses. This is the only college in the National University 
which provides for musical education in preparation for the degrees 
of bachelor and doctor of music. 

It is the only college in Ireland and perhaps in any university in 
the three kingdoms to give a special arts degree in journalism. In 
response to an appeal of the county council, referring to the neglect 
to provide courses of instruction leading up to degrees in agricul- 
tural science, the faculty of science, in 1912, put forward a scheme 
combining theoretical and practical in^ruction. The first year of 
the course is spent at the college in pursuit of the scientific subjects 



48 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

underlying agriculture; namely, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, 
and physical geology. Practical instruction is given in horticulture 
in the extensive gardens of the college. The second year is spent in 
an agricultural college approved by the college, where practical farm 
work can be carried on. The University College of North Wales is 
cited as a preferred agricultural college. The third year is taken in 
or near the college at Cork, the first six months in attendance at col- 
lege courses, and the summer six months with only a class in survey- 
ing at the college, the rest of the time being used upon an approved 
farm in the county. Cork affords a fresh illustration of the growing 
practice of associating a municipal school of science and technology 
with a university in order to avoid the expense of duplication.^ 

In 1914 after prolonged negotiations a provisional arrangement 
was made between the university and the University College of Cork 
and the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, which is under the 
control of the city of Cork's technical instruction committee, by 
which instruction in mechanical and electrical engineering in the 
institute is recognized for university degrees. The institute, installed 
in 1912 in an elegant new building with modern laboratories and 
workshops, made application to the university to become a recognized 
college, but the university did not grant the recognition. In 1914, 
however, the university senate resolved " that the courses for the 
B. E. degree in mechanical and electrical engineering, proposed by 
University College, Cork, be approved and that the courses in 
mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, engineering, chemis- 
try, workshop practice, design and drawing, at the Crawford Mu- 
nicipal Technical Institute, be accepted for these purposes." 

Upon the reconstitution of Queen's College into University College 
private beneficence began to supplement State support through the 
gift of $50,000 for scholarships. 

A further gift from the same source made possible the completion 
and equipment of a biological institute and of a hydraulic department 
of the engineering laboratory. 

By a generous bequest from the same donor, in 1914, an example 
was set for an ideal arrangement for the promotion of the social and 
religious life of students in a State institution. 

A hostol for 50 Koman Catholic students was founded on property 
adjoining the college. It was vested in a board of governors, con- 
sisting of laity as well as of clergy, with representation from the 
staff of the college and with a Catholic warden, a married man, one 
of the college teachers. A residence was also planned for a chap- 
lain and a suitable chapel erected. 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 59, 61, 138, 
198, 200. 



THREE CONSTITUENT COLLEGES. 49 

The importance of the corporate life of the students is recognized 
by the erection of a building for the men's club and for the women's 
social club. 

The college has fine athletic grounds comprising 15^ acres, with a 
grand stand and two pavilions. The college requires the payment 
of a small annual fee from each student which gives admission to the 
social and athletic clubs.^ 

University College, Galway, is an excellent specimen of the " small 
college." It is Europe's most Avestern collegiate outpost facing the 
Atlantic, situated in the ancient capital of Connaught, the most 
sparsely populated of the native Irish provinces. It has a special 
mission. It has inherited the traditions of the prosperity of the port 
in the days of the Spanish Main, and of its ancient collegiate church 
and school. It has been the protagonist of the federal university sys- 
tem as it was evidently too small to become an independent uni- 
versity. 

When the plans were under consideration for the constitution of 
the National University proposals were made that the Queen's 
College, Galway, should be reconstituted as an agricultural and tech- 
nical college. The proposition was laid aside not only because the 
college is not in a region favorable to agriculture and manufactures 
but because of the united political opposition of the five counties in 
the province. They have come forward loyally to support the insti- 
tution by contributing $7,500 annually by laying, despite their pov- 
erty, a farthing rate. They have thus secured an increase of the orig- 
inal Government grant of $60,000 by $10,000. 

The institution, in common with the other two Queen's colleges, 
has a suitable site, and an imposing Gothic quadrangular building 
with a tower over the principal entrance. The small grant for 
additional buildings in 1908 has prevented, as at Cork, the erection 
of a substantial structure with architectural features comparable to 
the original college. 

In 1914, in pursuance of its policy to cover the branches of instruc- 
tion offered in its sister colleges, the college added six new chairs 
and two lectureships.- Small salaries are paid, but the cost of 
living is supposed to be less. The feeling in Connaught is strong 
that the college should not be limited in its departments, and that 

1 University College, Cork, in 1914, had a teaching staff of 46 (professors, 34; lec- 
turers, 12) ; 407 students; number who obtained degrees, B. A., 25 (7 women) ; M. A., 6; 
B. Sc, 2 (1 woman) ; M. B., M. D., 1 ; B. E., 8. The influence of the new English 
universities may be traced in the fact that Principal Grindley, of the institute, is a grad- 
uate of Manchester and was a member of its teaching staff and also of the teaching staff 
of the University of Liverpool. 

- Chairs of commerce and accountancy, of education, of geology and mineralogy, of 
history with special reference to Irish history, of philosophy, of ophthalmology and 
otology, Rnd lectureships in mental diseases, and in operative surgery. 

89725°— 17 4 



50 HIGHEK EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

every educational facility should be brought to their own doors. 
In other quarters it is thought that the college should concentrate 
upon arts, science, and education, and that only premedical, prelegal, 
and preengineering courses should be attempted. It remains to be 
seen whether in time the central university will work out a differ- 
entiation of instruction in the different colleges with adaptations to 
their localities, restraining them to be only colleges instead of minia- 
ture universities, or if the colleges shall be developed into a sister- 
hood of universities.^ 

The University College, Dublin, which did not have the advan- 
tage of springing from one of the original Queen's colleges, has the 
compensations of succeeding to the libraries and laboratories of the 
former Royal University, of having the good will of the Catholic 
University, and of having new buildings erected for it at the seat 
of government and of the university. Its modern buildings will 
provide for the departments of the faculties of arts, law, and com- 
merce, and for several of those of science and medicine. 

The college has one of the strongest medical scliools in the island 
enjoying the hospital facilities of Dublin. 

Its law school, being at the seat of government and close to King's 
Inn, flourishes. 

The relations between the college and the college at Maynooth, 
in the suburbs of Dublin, are intimate and favor combined arts 
and theological courses for Roman Catholic students. 

The proximity of the National Museum, of the National Library, 
and of the Royal College of Science, and the size and attractions of 
the capital city have already made this youngest the largest of the 
university colleges. After prolonged negotiations between the col- 
lege and the College of Science the college recognizes the third and 
fourth year courses of the latter for the B. Agr. Sc. degree. 

The college has recognized the importance of the department of 
education and the development of the postgraduate higher diploma 
courses. In 1916 the department had 44 graduates out of 70 post- 
graduate students in the entire college. 

The department also offers a special diploma for experienced and 
trained primary teachers for which about 30 candidates have en- 
tered annually. 

In the courses for the higher diploma under " the practice of 
education " five hours each week are required in the demonstration 
of teaching method in three or more school subjects. In addition, 

1 University College, Galway, in 1914, had a teaching staff of 30 (professors, 25 ; lec- 
turers, 5) ; students, about 100; number taking degrees, B. A., 8 (4 women) : M. A., 4; 
LL. B., 2 ; D. Sc, 3 (1 woman) ; M Sc, 1 ; B. Sc, 3 ; B. E-, 8 ; M. B., B. Ch., B. A. 0., 3 ; 
higher diploma in education, 1 (woman). 



THEEE CONSTITUENT COLLEGES. 51 

the student is obliged to teach in a suitable school under the super- 
vision of the professor of education and his assistants for at least 
100 hours during the year, and also to attend the lessons given by- 
experienced teachers in schools. 

A diploma in education is open to students who have comjjleted 
a two-year course in a training college recognized by the Board of 
National Education and have finished a year in the courses in Uni- 
versity College prescribed for the diploma, which courses include 
general subjects approved by the professor of education and three 
hours a week in professional subjects. 

Education may be presented with two other subjects for the ordi- 
nary degree of B, Sc, or with three other subjects for the degree 
of B. A. 

An M. A. degree in educational science may be secured through a 
postgraduate course of three terms and the acceptance of a disser- 
tation, or by examinations with a dissertation in prescribed sub- 
jects, at least six terms after a B. A. degree. 

Annual vacation courses in education are offered. 

An education society has been founded, with the professor of edu- 
cation as director of research, to undertake research work into the 
history of education in Ireland and into other educational questions 
affecting Ireland. The membership of the society is limited to the 
staff of the department of education and to graduates who have 
been intern students in the department and have obtained a post- 
graduate qualification.^ 



1 In 1913-14 the staff of instruction of University College, Dublin, numbered 53, of whom 
7 were lecturers. The number of students at the University College was 787 (181 women). 
Degrees obtained were as follows : M. A., 14 (3 women) ; M. Litt. Celt., 1 ; B. Sc, 7 ; 
M. Sc, 6; LL. B., 2 ; M B., 41; M. D., 4 ; B. E., 4 ; M. A. O., 1 ; B. D. S., 1; total, 174 
(32 women). 



CHAPTER VI.— THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST. 

Under the Irish Universities Act of 1908, the Queen's University 
of Belfast was established simultaneously with the National Uni- 
versity of Ireland, but by a separate commission. It is a "single 
college" university like the Scotch^ and new English universities,- 
with the general plan and terminology for its organization taken 
from the University of London.'^ Its predecessor was the strongest 
of the three Queen's colleges Avhose continuity it preserved even in 
its title. It was deemed expedient to set it up as an independent 
institution in view of its location in the largest and richest city' 
in Ireland with a constituency of practically one race and one re- 
ligious persuasion. 

The public spirit in Belfast has been more like that of the Scotch 
and English in anticipating the State in founding schools and col- 
leges. The atmosphere in which Queen's College was planted and 
the university exists may be inferred from the history of the Royal 
Belfast Academical Institution, in some sense a precursor of the 
college. The Academical Institution was established by the gen- 
erosity of the citizens of Belfast and the inhabitants of the district 
in 1810 as an undenominational, classical, and mercantile school and 
college. It was largely made use of for the education of the Pres- 
byterian clergy. After 1828 it enjoyed an annual subsidy from Par- 
liament until it was commuted at the disestablishment in 1869. 
Since then it has been the recipient of more benefactions than ever 
before. Since 1897 its board of governors have been brave enough 
to drop the characteristics of its college period and to maintain it as 
a strictly nonsectarian public high school for boys between 9 
and 19 years of age. Without a division of the school into classical 
and modern sides, opportunities for specialization are given in the 
higher classes. Pupils are prepared for the scholarship and matricu- 
lation examinations of the universities. 

The variations in the statutes from those for the National Univer- 
sity with reference to the authorities of the university are slight, and 
due to the fact that it is not a federal institution. 

1 Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 55. 

2 Ibid., p. 111". 

"■ Ibid., p. 70, passim. 

* Belfast populaticn in 1911, 396,000. Rateable value, £1,557,809. 

52 



QUEEN ^S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST. 53 

The president of the university is by virtue of his office the vice 
chancellor; instead of his term of office being limited to five years 
subject to reelection his tenure extends until he is 70 years of age, 
and he may be requested to remain in office for an additional period 
not exceeding five years.^ Instead of officers and persons elected 
from the constituent colleges as in the National University, the Bel- 
fast senate has representatives of the Students Kepresentative Coun- 
cil, of the Executive Committee of the " Better Equipment P'und,-' 
of the Belfast Technical Instruction Committee of the Corporation 
of Belfast, of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Royal Victoria 
Hospital. 

The Belfast senate appoints professors or lecturers upon the 
advice of a board of curators similar to a like board in the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh. The board consists of the vice chancellor, four 
nonprofessorial members of the senate, one of whom retires annually, 
and ^our professors elected by the academic council, two of whom 
hold chairs in subjects cognate to that in Avhich the professor or lec- 
turer is to be appointed. 

The statutes provide for the establishment of advisory committees 
representing the interests of commerce, of technology, and of the 
extension of university teaching throughout the Province of Ulster. 

The committee on technology has the important function of 
reporting on " any matter affecting the mutual interests of the uni- 
versity and the Municipal Technical Institute,- and in particular 
any proposal involving the establishment within the university of 
new departments or the addition to the lists of subjects of the faculty 
of science of new subjects relating to applied science or technology." 

Under its statutory powers of recognizing colleges or teachers of 
other institutions the university has cordially put into operation the 
policy of the coordination of scientific and technological instruction 
in the Island. 

The senate of the university and the corporation of Belfast, in 
1911, entered into an agreement for at least seven years for coopera- 
tion. The Municipal Technical Institute is to provide an adequate 
teaching staff, laboratories, and equipment for giving instruction 
of a university standard to day classes in subjects approved by the 
university. The university agrees not to offer courses of instruction 
in these subjects. The university receives the usual university and 
examination fees and pays the expenses of the external examiners. 
The institute collects the fees and enrolls the students. 

1 Cf. infra, p. 56. 

2 Under the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act of 1899 the Corpora- 
tion of Belfast amalgamated different schools in the Municipal Technical Institute. Be- 
tween 1902 and 1911 the corporation erected and equipped a magnificent building for 
the school. 



54 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The professors and lecturers of the institute who are " recognized 
teachers " are eligible to be members of the general board of studies 
of the university, to be internal examiners and to be members of the 
science faculty. The principal of the institute is ex officio a member 
of the faculty of science. 

The students at the institute who wish to proceed to a degree must 
matriculate in the university before entering on their course of 
study. The degrees open to them are those of B. Sc, M. Sc, and 
D. Sc. 

The teachers in the institute recognized in 1914r-15 as extramural 
professors and lecturers are in the departments of mechanical en- 
gineering, electrical engineering, textile industries, chemical tech- 
nology, and design. 

The arrangement between the university and the Municipal Tech- 
nical Institute not only prevents duplication of work by the institu- 
tions but also affords a first-class opportunity for applied science in 
the university. Without diverting from the primary practical aims 
of the institute for the majority of its pupils the plan points the way 
for higher education to the gifted among them. 

In like manner the university has an arrangement with the Royal 
College of Science, Dublin. The university recognizes the professors 
of agriculture, of agricultural botany, of agricultural chemistry, of 
geology, of botany, and of zoology in that college. 

The degree of bachelor of science in agriculture is conferred by 
the university on students taking the first two years of a course of 
study at the university and a second two years at the College of 
Science. In addition to pursuing the courses of the first two years 
for the ordinary B. Sc. degree in the university, the candidate is re- 
quired to attend a class in some subject of the faculty of arts, but he 
is not required to pass the class examination. 

It may be significant of the character of the constituency of Queen's 
College that it is the only Irish university to conduct tutorial classes 
under the auspices of the Worker's Education Association.^ Uni- 
versity extension, in the form of lecture courses, is undertaken, but 
these are almost wholly delivered in the buildings of the university. 

A notable event in the university's history was the foundation, with 
the aid of Down and Armagh County Councils, of a chair of educa- 
tion, and the appointment of a professor to fill it with whom have 
been associated the professor of logic and metaphysics, the lecturers 
on scholastic philosophy and on hygiene. 

Courses in preparation for diplomas in education are offered simi- 
lar in scope to those in the National University. The senate com- 

*Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. BuUetin, 1917, No. 16, p. 253, passim. 



queen's university of BELFAST. 55 

iriittee set forth the ends in view in the establishment of the chair. 
The first purpose is to provide " facilities for professional study to 
teachers in secondary and technical schools and to graduates in arts 
and science who are about to become teachers"; second, to provide 
courses of lectures for teachers in elementary schools; third, the 
recognition of education as a university subject in the faculty of 
arts; and to open the way for the formation of a university training 
cfmter for elementary teachers. An advisory education committee 
has been appointed composed of members of the senate and repre- 
sentatives of the contributing county councils, of the headmasters', of 
the assistant headmasters', and of the assistant mistresses' associa- 
tions. This committee is in harmony with the system of advisory 
committees by which the university seeks to keep in close touch with 
those outside it who are interested in the courses of instruction con- 
cerned. 

The youngest faculty in the university is that of commerce. It is 
expected to make a special appeal in Belfast, the commercial me- 
tropolis of Ireland. In 1915 the faculty secured a distinctive ad- 
dition to the title of its degrees which at first were in " Science." 
The full title is now Bachelor of Commercial Science (B. Com. Sc.) ; 
Master of Commercial Science (M. Com. Sc). 

Queen's is peculiar among the Irish universities in having a 
students' representative council, after the pattern of those in the 
Scotch universities.^ The president of the council, if a graduate of 
the university, is a member of the senate. The council is elected 
annually and is composed of members from each year's class in the 
faculties of arts, science, medicine, and law. The council looks after 
all matters which may affect the students. It has authority over all 
clubs, societies, and affiliated societies, and each club has a repre- 
sentative on the cftuncil. 

Belfast has been the first among the new institutions in Ireland 
to adopt after long deliberation the pension scheme for pensionable 
persons appointed after the passing of the Irish universities act, 
1908. The act continued the allowances of " existing officers " in the 
Royal University and Queen's colleges, received under the superannu- 
ation acts, 1834-1892, if they accepted equivalent offices in the new in- 
stitution, and also empowered the institutions to confer pensions. The 
scheme adopted is a noncontributory one and the management and 
investment of the pension fund are conducted by the university 
instead of by an arrangement with an insurance company. In 
these two points the scheme contravenes the strong recommendation 
of the Belfast University Commissioners of 1911 and the contempo- 

1 Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 246, passim. 



56 HIGHER EDUCATION IK IRELAND AND WALES. 

rary plan of the Advisory Committee for Universities in England and 
Wales and now in operation there/ The scheme creates a superan- 
nuation fund administered by the finance committee of the univer- 
sity. The university sets aside annually a sum calculated at the 
rate of 10 per cent of the normal salary of each president, full-time 
professor, and other pensionable officer.- 

An original point in the scheme is " the accumulated fund in rela- 
tion to the officer " which is the sum available for a pension or allow- 
ance, viz, the total amount of the yearly contributions made on the 
10 per cent basis of his normal salary together with compound in- 
terest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum until his retirement or 
death. Any officer certified as medically unfit for service receives a 
retiring allowance. 

Any officer may retire at the age of 60 irrespective of the state of 
his health and receive an allowance, but the age ^ for a president is 
65. No person retiring before he is 60 years of age is to receive an 
allowance except upon satisfying the senate of his inability. In the 
event of the death of an officer while in office the senate may grant 
a gratuity or charitable allowance to his widow and children, if any, 
not exceeding the equivalent of the " accumulated fund in relation 
to the officer." The same provision applies to near relatives imme- 
diately dependent upon the officer. The senate is not permitted to 
make an allowance where there are only legal personal representa- 
tives of the deceased. 

The senate after considering any representation the officer may 
make has absolute discretion to pay the benefit in whole or in part 
when due, or to apply it for an annuity, or to pay it in such form 
as may be deemed best to meet the circumstances of the case. 

Under the Irish universities act of 1908 Belfast received $300,000 
for buildings and equipment which sum has been supplemented from 
the " fund for the better equipment of the university," established 
some 15 years ago by the friends of the institution. The result is the 
addition of a series of substantial buildings harmonizing with the 
quadrangle inherited from Queen's College.* The new buildings are 
a physics block, new medical laboratories, a library, and a drill hall. 
In 1913 the university received $175,000 by private benefaction for 
a hostel for women students which has just been opened. 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 187. 

2 Normal salary of president is not to be reckoned as greater than .$6,000, of professor 
than ,$3,000, of other pensionable ofllcei than $2,000. No pension or superannuation 
allowance shall exceed for a president $3,000, a professor $2,000, other pensionable officer 
$750. 

3 Retirement is compulsory for a president at 70, for a professor at 65, unless the 
senate request them to remain in office for not excedineg five years. 

*The architect of the quadrangle survived to win at the age of 86 the award in the 
competitive plans for the new buildings. 



QUEEN ^S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST. - 57 

The attendance at the university has ranged since 1909-10 around 
600.1 

The university impresses one as belonging to the sisterhood of new 
English universities in its intimate relation to its locality, its wide 
range of instruction, and its democratic spirit. 

iJn 1914-15 the number of students was 545; total number of staff. 68, of whom 25 
were professors. Degrees eoiifeired: li. Sc. 2; LL. D., 3; M. D., 7; M. Ch., 2; M. A., 15 
(6 women); M. So., 5; B. A., 38 (16 women); B. Sc, 12 (10 women) ; B Sc in 
Engin., 7 ; LL. B., 6 ; M. B., B. Ch., B. A. O., 47 ; diploma in Pub. Health, 8. 



CHAPTER VII.— THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNI- 
CAL INSTRUCTION. 

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for 
Ireland is the result of a movement initiated in 1895 by Mr. Horace 
Plunkett, then a member of Parliament. He published a letter in- 
viting members from each political party in Ireland to form a com- 
mittee for the promotion of noncontentious matters affecting the 
social and material interests of the country. He was made chairmati 
of a recess committee which was aided by an Ulster consultative 
committee. The report of the recess committee,^ favoring the estab- 
lishment of a department of agriculture and industries for Ireland, 
was presented in 1896 to INIr. Gerald Balfour, then chief secretary 
for Ireland. He made it the basis for the legislation Avhich he 
added in 1899 to his other important measure, the local government 
act of 1898. 

The report embodied a review of the economic condition of Ire- 
land, its available resources, and the studies of special commission- 
ers sent to continental countries to inquire into the development of 
their industrial resources through State-aid and cooperative agencies. 

The report marked a chapter in the story of the agricultural co- 
operative movement of the United Kingdom, which originated in 
Ireland about 1889. Its aim was to stay the " increasing subordina- 
tion of agriculture to commerce, which was then a characteristic 
defect of rural economy in the English-speaking portion of the globe 
in contrast with the policy of the continental governments." ^ On 
the Continent, where the fear of invasion was believed to necessitate 
a military regime, as a measure of safety for the nation, the endeavor 
was made to keep agriculture on a parity Avith commerce and indus- 
try. By 1889 the end of the old conflict in Ireland between land- 
lords and tenant farmers was in sight as a result of the Gladstonian 
legislation of 1881, giving the tenants permanence of tenure at a 
rent fixed by a State tribunal, and the right of selling their interest 
to the highest bidder. But by this time the competition of the Avorld 
market reduced the price of the farmers' crops. The farmers, join- 

1 Report of the Recess Committee on the Establishment of a Department of Agricul- 
ture and Industries for Ireland. A new edition. Dublin, Browne & Nolan, 1906. 

* Cf. Plunkett, Sir Horace. "A Suggested Solution of the Rural Problem." Supplement 
to the Irish Homestead, July 19, 1913. 

58 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUKe/ ETC. 59 

ing with the landlords who were suffering from reduced rents, called 
for new land legislation. The State met the demand by the use of 
its credit, possibly to the amount of $1,000,000,000, to make it pos- 
sible for the tenant to become the sole proprietor by the purchase 
of the landlord's interest. 

This was an opportune moment for Sir Horace Plunkett and 
others to teach the farmers the lesson learned from their continental 
competitors of cooperative production and marketing with judicious 
State aid. " The political influence developed by the organized 
farmers enabled them to obtain from Parliament the Department 
of Agriculture and Technical Instruction."^ For the first seven 
years of its operation the department had as its working head Sir 
Horace Plunkett, a connecting link with the Irish Agricultural Or- 
ganization Society, of which he is still the leader. The work of 
this society and its influence even in America are well known.- 

We only make reference to it here because it gives a background 
for an understanding of the development of Irish higher education 
and is in some sort a form of university and school extension under 
voluntary and local auspices. It contains valuable hints in its 
methods and in its spirit for American university and agricultural 
college extension. Its principle embodied in its mottcK, " better farm- 
ing, better business, better living," has been well applied as regards 
the first phrase in American agricultural college extension work, but 
needs to be taken up more vigorously as regards the last two phrases. 
The society's order of procedure in putting "better business" with 
genuine cooperative features first has not been as yet sufficiently 
remarked by the American college. 

The limitation of our report to higher education must curtail our 
references to the department of agriculture and technical instruction. 
It is a branch of Government covering, like the Department of Agri- 
culture in Washington, a wide field, but, unlike that department, ad- 
ministered in part through local Government bodies, and having di- 
rect control of educational institutions. In its organization it co- 
ordinated various separate branches of Government, including several 
educational institutions.^ Local conditions at the time may have 

1 Plunkett, supra, p. IT. 

2 Organized, 1894 ; parent of about 1,000 agricultural cooperative societies, with over 
100,000 members. In 1914 annual business transactions amounted to $10,500,000 ; sup- 
ported by voluntary subscriptions from the beginning of $600,000, annual fees of branch 
societies and governmental grants. Bulletin of the Cooperative Reference Library, July, 
1914. Plunkett House, Dublin. Cf. American Commission on Agricultural Cooperation 
and Rural Credit in Europe, 1913. Senate Doc, 214. 

3 The act transferred to the department the powers and duties of the existing veterinary 
department ; of the registrar general and land commission in relation to a^^ricultural 
statistics, etc. ; of the board of education. South Kensington, in relation to the adminis- 
tration of the science and art grant, the technical instruction grant, and the science and 
art institutions in Ireland; of the Board of National Education in connection with the 
Glasnevin and Munster institutions ; and of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries. 



60 HIGHEK EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

justified their inclusion. The desirability of following this example 
in separating the administration of educational institutions from 
boards of education and putting them under boards of agriculture, 
as was later done in England, and has been advocated in other parts 
of the world, may still be an open question. This was shown by the 
inquiries of the Dublin Commission (Irish universities act, 1908) as 
to the coordination of the Royal College of Science with the National 
University, as well as by the report of the Royal Commission on 
University Education in London (1913) with reference to coordi- 
nating the Imperial College of Science and Technology with the 
other institutions in the University of London.^ 

In accordance with a wise British habit, to forefend against the 
evils of bureaucracy, to keep an institution in touch with the people, 
and to make business subserve educational ideals, the department was 
bound up with several advisory and administrative bodies. Among 
these is the Council of Agriculture, which consists of 104 members, 
representative of each county council, and of each of the four prov- 
inces, apportioned with due regard to the agricultural and industrial 
organizations in the province. 

The department must administer the portion of its endowment 
fund, intended for the purposes of agriculture, with the concurrence 
of an agricultural board. The agricultural board consists of 12 per- 
sons, eight appointed by the provincial committees of the council of 
ugriculture, and four appointed by the department. 

The Board of Technical Instruction, to advise the department with 
reference to technical instruction, consists of 21 persons representing 
the councils of county boroughs, the Provincial Committees, the- 
Commissioners of National Education, the Intermediate Education 
Board, and four persons appointed by the department. The last of 
the bodies surrounding by law the department is the Consultative 
Committee of Education "to coordinate educational administra- 
tion." The committee consists of the vice president of the depart- 
ment and one person appointed by each of the following bodies : The 
Commissioners of National Education, The Intermediate Education 
Board, The Agricultural Board, and The Board of Technical In- 
struction. This committee has done much to harmonize science teach- 
ing and technical instruction in primary, secondary, and higher 
education. 

The Royal College of Science and the Albert Agricultural Col- 
lege, Glasnevin, are the two institutions committed to the depart- 
ment which come especially within the purview of our studies.^ 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp 78-79, 81, 
90-91. 

2 The other institutions, maintained by the department from its Parliamentary vote, 
are the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, the Metropolitan School of Art, the National 
Library of Ireland, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ETC. 61 

The history of the Royal College of Science has been similar to 
that of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, 
by Avhich it has been influenced, and like the latter it has been re- 
peatedlj^ reconstituted and had several names. It is descended from a 
provision made by the Irish Parliament through the Royal Dublin 
Society for the encouragement of agriculture and industries and arts 
and education connected therewith. In 1845, it was known as the 
Museum of Irish Industry under the Office of Woods and Forests. 
In 1847 its scope was enlarged under the name of the Museum of 
Irish Industry and Government School of Science applied to Learn- 
ing and the Arts. In 1853 it was put under the control of the 
department of science and art, which had then just been created 
as a branch of the board of trade. In 1867, in accordance with 
the recommendations of a Commission of the Council on Education 
and a committee of the House of Commons it was established as the 
Royal College of Science for Ireland and absorbed the existing 
Museum and School of Science. The college remained under the 
control of the Science and Art Department in England until its 
transfer in 1900 to the Irish Department of Agriculture and Tech- 
nical Instruction. 

The department has made '* the college an institution for sup- 
plying an advanced course of instruction in science as applied to 
agriculture and the industrial arts; for training teachers for tech- 
nical schools, and for secondary and intermediate schools in which 
science is taught; and for carrying out scientific research." All 
appointments in the college are made by the department. The 
professors and lecturers hold permanent and pensionable appoint- 
ments.^ The professors and lecturers constitute the college coun- 
cil which is presided over by one of the professors, who is called 
the dean of faculty. The functions of the council are to advise the 
department on educational matters. The staff is divided into the 
faculties of agriculture, of applied chemistry, and of engineering. 
Students who pass the entrance examination and take the regular 
courses are known as associates. Students not less than 16 years of 
age who are not taking a complete course of study and who are 
not required to pass an entrance examination are known as nonasso- 
ciate students. 

The college, not having the power to confer degrees, offers a 
diploma of associateship (A. R. C. Sc. I.) to associates who have 
completed the four years curriculum or one of the special groups 
for science teachers. An A. R. C. Sc. L, who studies for another 

1 rrofessors' salaries range from $3,000 to $3,500 ; lecturers, from $1,750 to $2,1'50. 
The teaching staflf (1914) numbered 30; professors, 10; lecturers, 9; demonstrators and 
assistants, 11. 



62 HIGHER EDUCATION LN IRELAND AND WALES. 

year in th€ college and submits satisfactory thesis, may be awarded 
the diploma of fellowship (F. E. C. Sc. I.)- 

A number of scholarships and " teacherships-in-training " are 
offered for competition. 

The scholarships are of the value of $250 per annum and in 
addition free instruction and railway fare for one journey each 
year.^ 

Scholarships in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and creamery 
management are offered for students specializing in one of these 
subjects. These scholarships include free instruction and either a 
maintenance allowance of $5 per week while in attendance at the 
college or free board and residence at one of the departments' in- 
stitutions. 

Research studentships are awarded to specially qualified persons. 
These include free instruction but no maintenance allowance. A 
teachership-in-training entitles the holder to free instruction, a 
maintenance allowance of $5 per week for the academic year, and 
a railway fare. The candidates are required to enter into an under- 
taking that they will pursue the full associate course with a view 
to becoming teacliers of science in Ireland, and will refund to the 
department the sums paid them if they fail to carry out their 
intentions. 

The entrance examination in five subjects is similar to that of 
the universities, except that in the case of students entering for the 
f acult}^ of agriculture the subject of experimental science is replaced 
by agriculture, and the candidate must have had " substantial expe- 
rience of practical work in connection with farming, gardening, the 
management of woodlands, or of dairies and creameries.'' The 
examination in agriculture is limited to one of the four topics: 
Agriculture, horticulture, forestry, dairying and creamery manage- 
ment. 

In addition to passing the entrance examination in literary and 
scientific subjects, the entrant must attain " a high standard in an 
examination on practical farming, since he is required to have had 
considerable experience in all ordinary farm operations." The young 
farmer's preparation may begin in one of the winter classes con- 
ducted in each county by one of the department's instructors. If 
the pupil can be spared from his farm work during the entire year 
he can proceed to one of the department's agricultural stations and 
finish his preparation at the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin. 

The student in the Royal College desiring a degree may avail 
himself of an arrangement, made with the Queen's University of 

» Fees for all associate students : First year, $75 ; each of the three succeeding years, 
$100. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUEE^ ETC. 68 

Belfast,^ or the National University of Ireland,^ by which taking 
the first or the first and second years of the college courses in the 
university he may enter the college as a second or third year student, 
the work done in the college being counted toward that required 
for its degree by the university. 

In 1903 an act of Parliament appropriated $1,125,000 for addi- 
tional land and the erection and equipment of new buildings for the 
Eoyal College of Science and other public offices. The site is adja- 
cent to the National Museum, which in turn is adjacent to the National 
Library. This aggregation of fine stone structures on a plot not far 
from the new buildings of the National University and University 
College and the venerable walls and " squares " of Trinity College 
impresses the visitor with the expenditure for higher education in 
Dublin, and that it must remain the educational as well as the politi- 
cal capital. 

The Albert Agricultural College, in a suburb of Dublin (Glas- 
nevin), finds its germ in one of the two agricultural schools estab- 
lished under local management in 1837. The model farm and garden 
of 17 acres have been extended to cover an area of about 180 acres. 
Under the commissioners of national education the school expanded 
into the Albert National Agricultural Training Institute between 
1851 and its transfer to the Department of Agriculture in 1900. In 
this period it served for higher and intermediate agricultural teach- 
ing, for training of national school teachers, and also for experiments 
and practical dairy work. The department converted the institution 
into a technical college for the training of agriculturists and horti- 
culturists. The agricultural course occupies in the department 
scheme a position intermediate between the instruction given at the 
agricultural stations and that in the Royal College of Science. The 
horticultural course is intended for selected pupils who are seeking to 
qualify for the post of instructor in horticulture. Incidentally the 
college serves as a hall of residence for a number of the agricultural 
scholars at the Royal College of Science. The candidate for admis- 
sion must not be less than 17 nor more than 30 years of age, and 
must pass an entrance examination in English, arithmetic, the ele- 
ments of mensuration and algebra to simple equations, and agricul- 
ture. The examination in agriculture is to test knowledge gained by 
practical experience of farm work and not that gathered from a 
textbook. The college can accommodate only about 60 students. 

The policy of the Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 
struction is the most suggestive part of its activities. The depart- 
ment, shaping its policy at the beginning after a comparative study 
of continental systems, has had a free hand to carry out its policy 
r — — 

>-Cf. supra, p. 54. »Cf. infra, p. 64. 



64 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

in a compact country little hampered by educational traditions. It 
believes that experience has justified its determination made at the 
start to center higher agricultural and technical education in the 
Royal College of Science with its auxiliary in the Albert Agricultural 
College.' The training of teachers and instructors has been con- 
fined to these institutions. 

The department has steadily resisted the widespread notion that 
" the salvation of backward farming lies in the teaching of agricul- 
ture in the primary schools and in the multiplication of agricultural 
colleges and model farms." It found objections against residential 
colleges in towns where young men get ideas and form habits that 
make farm life and work distasteful. Experience has taught that 
the class of youth attending the residential agricultural college is 
nonagricultural. The low fee and the advantages offered at the resi- 
dential school attract children of the professional, mercantile, and 
nonagricultural classes. The cost of equipping modern collegiate 
centers favored the one strong college for training experts and teach- 
ers and using other means for the education of those who are to be 
bona fide farmers. These means included : The appointment of one 
or more itinerant instructors in each county, who not only give lec- 
tures but carry out field demonstrations and experiments ; the forma- 
tion of winter agricultural classes at outlying centers where pupils 
who can not be spared from their fathers' farms have opportunity to 
attend; the provision of agricultural stations, not in the high Ameri- 
can sense, but as centers where young men intending to become farm- 
ers may undergo an apprenticeship in farm practice, making use of 
the unpretentious permanent establishment for practical experi- 
ments; and the erection of farmers' institutes, i. e., buildings at a 
railway center equipped with classrooms, laboratories, and offices. 
The classrooms are for short technical coiirses for young farmers. 

The department's system of agricultural education extends neither 
to the elementary school nor to the university. It rests upon the 
practice followed in Scotland and Denmark. The school is sup- 
posed to train the man and the farm the farmer. The example of the 
successful farmer is relied upon to advance agriculture more than 
the teaching of the schoolmaster. 

The Eoyal and Albert Colleges are reserved for training in the 
technology of agriculture and are in some sense the apex of the 
lower agricultural education. On the other hand, they recognize as 
beyond their higher work a highest education in the universities with 
which they seek to be coordinated. 

1 Memorandum on Agricultural Education, 1909. Department of Agriculture and 
Technical Instruction for Ireland. Cf. Campbell, J R., Agi-icultural Education witb 
Special Reference to Ireland, 1908 ; Fletcher, George, A Decade of Technical Instruction 
in Ireland, 1911 ; Gill, T. P., Character and Educational Efficiency in Ireland, 1908 ; Edu- 
cation and Citizenship, 1913 ; North and South in National Work, 1914. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE, ETC. 65 

Agriculture as they teach it is " largely concerned with the details 
of an industry, belongs to the domain of technology and not to 
pure science or to the humanities. It is important that agriculture 
should also be treated as a branch of the wide subject of national 
economics. All public men need a knowledge of its history, poten- 
tialities, and lelation to our social and economic system. Technical 
agriculture should form no part of a university course, but agricul- 
ture in its humane aspect should be taught in every university." 

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, hew- 
ing to these lines, seeks through local organizations and schools to 
teach agriculture and mechanic arts as trades full of professional 
spirit, and only to coordinate their institutions as colleges with the 
universities which have the broader function of shaping the general 
higher education. 

89725°— 17 5 



PART II. WALES. 



CHAPTER VIII. MOVEMENTS PREPARATORY FOR THE UNIVER- 
SITY OF WALES. 1 

For years Wales has afforded " a happy hunting ground for edu- 
cational experiments." Wales was the latest part of the United 
Kingdom to enter the field of modern education in which, as if by 
magic, it soon took the lead. The founding of the University of 
Wales, chartered in 1893, was the crowning of a movement whose 
distinct progress can be traced back for some thirty years from that 
date and its more remote origin to the religious revival of the 
eighteenth century. Entirely without any medieval or reformation 
university foundations, which have exerted an influence in England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, Wales has been free to build on modern lines. 

Oxford mellowed the modernity of the University of Wales 
through the touch of Jesus College, founded in 1571 as a Welsh 
college, and particularly by the activities of its graduates like those 
of its late principal. Sir John Rhys, in establishing and counseling 
the new university. 

The glamor of a Celtic antiquity is shed, as in Ireland, over the 
university. The tradition survives that " before the coming of Chris- 
tianity, before the Roman invasion of England, the Celts of Ireland 
and Wales had already attained a high level of civilization." This 
belief intensifying nationalism and enriching the culture of the 
people has very happily given a prominence to the Celtic language 
and literature as an option among the diciplines of the University' 
of Wales. But these studies have not suffered by being made com- 
pulsory as in Ireland,- where, through the zeal of the Gaelic League 
which sometimes resorted to political influence, the colleges yielded 
their judgment that the studies should be elective only. 

The singularity of Wales in having no university had long been 
felt. At the beginning of the fifteenth century Owen Glendower 
asked the schismatic pope to establish two universities, one in north 
and one in south Whales. It is reported that Henry VII granted a 
charter to the Abbot of Neath Valley " to set up there a universitj'^ 
the like of Oxford for the benefit of the Welsh." 

» Cf. Davies, W. Cadwallader, and Jones, W. Lewis. The University of Wales and Its 
Constituent Colleges. (College Histories.) London, F. E. Robinson & Co., 1905. 
a Cf. supra, pp. 33, 35. 

66 



THE UNIVEESITY OF WALES. 67 

In the period of the Commonwealth Richard Baxter endeavored 
to have a college or a university established in Wales to educate 
ministers of religion, and corresponded with Oliver Cromwell on the 
subject. 

These early suggestions of a university, bespeaking a need and an 
aspiration, have no direct connection with the modern national move- 
ment which culminated in the foundation of the University of Wales. 
No university was ever planned to be more truly national, modern, 
and a people's university. The church, earlier Roman Catholic and 
later Anglican, had kept learning alive in certain centers. But the 
Methodist revival at the end of the eighteenth century, followed by 
the multiplication of Sunday schools and the circulation of the Bible 
in Welsh, gave a new development to national life and imbued the 
humblest homes with a "passion for education" similar to that 
which has possessed Americans. 

Simultaneously with the religious revival there was a revival of 
the study of older Welsh literature stimulated by a group of bards, 
and the expression of a desire for a national college or university. 
Literary societies were formed far and near. In 1819 a congress in 
Carmarthen resuscitated the ancient national festival of the Eistedd- 
fod. Miniature Eisteddfodau spread through the country uniting 
in a common Welsh culture that of the bards and of the Bible, espe- 
cially as taught in the Sunday schools and chapels. This union justi- 
fies the use of the term spiritual in Matthew Arnold's reference to an 
Eisteddfod as " a kind of Olympic meeting : and that the common 
people should care for such a thing at all shows something Greek in 
them, something spiritual, something humane, something (I am 
afraid one must add) which in the English common people is not to 
be found." 

The spread of folk culture by the revived spirit of bardism and 
of the Bible prepared the way for the demand for higher schools. 
The first fruits were theological colleges, which were poverty stricken. 
They were erected by the different. denominations. Vying with the 
nonconformists the State Church secured the incorporation in 1828 
of St. David's College, Lampeter, which ultimately obtained the 
power to give the degree of B. D., in 1852, and of B. A., in 1865. 
Lampeter, through the influence of the church and at a time when 
university reform was abroad in Oxford and Cambridge, overcame 
the unbroken precedent that only a university could grant degrees 
and became the pathfinder for a degree-granting institution in 
Wales. ^ 

The theological schools made more apparent than ever the lack of 
lower as well as of higher education. 

^Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 18-19. 



68 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The influence of the rising tide of national education following 
the era of political reforms and extension of the franchise dating 
from the Reform Bill of 1832 coalesced with the local Welsh move- 
ments. Lord John Russell had moved in 1832 that a grant should 
be made for elementary education in England and Wales, 

In 1845-1849 he added to the elementary grants in Ireland the pro- 
visions for the establishment of the Queen's colleges and Queen's 
University.^ 

The question was raised of founding also Queen's colleges in 
Wales, and a commission was appointed in 1846 to inquire into the 
state of education in the principality. The inclusion of Wales In 
England as_one political entity as contrasted with Ireland and Scot- 
land has often retarded action in Wales. Fortunately perhaps for 
Wales, Queen's colleges were not imposed by a well-meaning gov- 
ernment upon the country as in Ireland. It was left for the people 
to found and appreciate their own institutions. 

The definite movement resulting in the foundation of the Univer- 
sity of Wales may be dated from the time of an address to the public 
issued by a " provisional committee " from " The University for 
AVales Office" in 1864. The provisional committee consisted of 
friends of education in Wales, and wealthy and representative 
Welshmen in England who organized themselves into a committee 
at a meeting in London. The Rev. Dr. Nicholas, of the Presbyterian 
Theological College. Carmarthen, who had published in 1862 a se- 
ries of letters entitled " Middle and High Schools and a University 
for Wales," was appointed secretary. An appeal was made to the 
people of Wales and friends of Wales in England to form a national 
fund and to apply to Parliament to supplement it. 

The Prime Minister, Mr. Disraeli, in 1868, and Mr. Gladstone, 
in 1871, declined to favor Government aid for the enterprise though 
in this same period increased grants were given to reconstitute the 
Queen's University as the Royal University of Ireland. 

The results were concentration upon the establishment of univer- 
sity colleges while the scheme for a university waited, and the arous- 
ing of the people to work for themselves. 

The site for a proposed "central and sole college for Wales" was 
determined by the opportunity for a bargain in the purchase for 
$50,000 of an unfinished hotel at Aberystwyth, costing $400,000. 
Voluntary contributions for the establishment and support of the 
college flowed in from " at least 73,000 persons of the middle and 
industrial classes" in Wales. Appeals were organized to reach the 
entire population. Congregational collections were taken up in the 
different denominations. Members of Parliament for Welsh con- 



Cf. suproj pp. 25, 28. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 69 

stituencies were interested as well as municipal corporations, local 
boards of health, and school boards. Donations were received from 
the National Eisteddfod. The focussing of popular attention upon 
higher education and the establishment of the University College, at 
Aberystwyth, inaugurated the epoch of the three Welsh university 
colleges. 

" The University College of Wales," Aberystwyth, opened in 1872, 
became the pathfinder not only for the two other university colleges, 
but also for a number of movements connected with higher educa- 
tion, and ultimately for the University of Wales. The zeal of locali- 
ties insj^ired by their territorial interests in becoming the site of pub- 
lic institutions, familiar the world over, soon played a part in an agi- 
tation for the establishment of other university colleges. Aberyst- 
wyth, though a salubrious and beautiful seaside resort, is a small 
place of about 10,000 inhabitants on the western coast, just within the 
borders of North Wales, and somewhat inaccessible. It has had to 
contend with the disadvantages of its location. It is not central for 
the whole of Wales nor for either North or South Wales, the natural 
divisions of the Principality. It has, however, the advantage of be- 
ing at the center of the Welsh speaking population and of having had 
the start of 10 years ov^ the other colleges. As a pioneer initiating 
broad national policies it secured respect and an argument for its 
permanence. It gave the practical start to the movement which has 
resulted in the erection of the magnificent NationalLibrary of Wales, 
at Aberystwyth.^ Collections of rare Welsh manuscripts and books 
were gathered and instruction in Welsh and cognate languages 
offered. 

The college's idea of a national science museum, yielding valuable 
collections to the college, has come to full fruition in the National 
Museum of Wales, housed in one of the most imposing buildings just 
approaching completion among the great group of public buildings 
in Cathays Park, Cardiff.^ 

1 The National Library of Wales was founded by Royal Charter in 1907, and is main- 
tained by annual grants from the Government The property of the library is vested 
in a large court of governors, representative of the Government, of the university, and 
university colleges of Wales, of the Central Welsh Board for Intermediate Education, of 
teachers, of county councils, of other public bodies, and of certain donors. The adminis- 
tration is in the hands of a council. In the main, the library is for research in Celtic 
literature and history. In modern books it circulates loan collections, e. g., for the 
Workers' Educational Association. In 1911, foundation stones of permanent buildings 
were laid by King George V. and Queen Mary. A magnificent quadrangle of buildings, to 
cost a million and a half dollars, is planned on a hillside overlooking Aberystwyth. Two 
blocks and a transverse for the department of manuscripts have been completed. Under 
the Copyright Act, 1911, the library obtained the privilege of claiming publications, with 
a few exceptions, printed thereafter in the United Kingdom. The library Insures that 
Aberystwyth and its University College will become one of the world's greatest centers 
for research in Celtic literature and history. 

2 The museum is In the hands of a representative national corporation similar to that 
of the library. It will afford special facilities for scientific research in the University 
College, Cardiff. 



70 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The college forced the consideration of the relation between the 
college and grammar schools. 

It endeavored to align the theological colleges with itself by pro- 
posing the acceptance by them of its " certificate of associate " as a 
preliminary for admission to the study of divinity. 

A scheme was proposed to establish county scholarships, open 
to pupils of elementary schools, first of all at grammar schools, and 
then upon competitive examinations at the college. 

A beginning of university education in agriculture in the prin- 
cipality was made by the appointment of an agricultural expert to 
deliver lectures at the college and to teachers, and by the trans- 
lation into Welsh and circulation among the farmers of an agri- 
cultural pamphlet. 

The poverty of the college, its precarious support dependent upon 
voluntary contributions, and its desire to fulfill national ideals 
caused it repeatedly to bombard the Treasury for aid. This com- 
bined with the first fruits of the Elementary Education Act of 1870 
led to the appointment in 1880 of a departmental committee to in- 
quire into the condition of intermediate and higher education in 
Wales.^ It is to be noted that the president of the governing board 
of the college, Lord Aberdare, was the chairman of the committee. 
The outcome of the recommendations of the committe was twofold. 
In 1882 the college received the first payment of an annual parliamen- 
tary grant of $20,000, strengthening the precedents of an annual 
maintenance fund which has since meant so much to the new English 
universities and, indeed, to all the universities in the United King- 
dom. The second result is the existence of three university colleges. 
Constrained by the political necessity of AVelsh-wide support to se- 
cure the grant, the committee recommended that there should be two 
colleges, one in Cardiff or Swansea, for South Wales, and another for 
North Wales, at Aberystwyth, or at some place to be designated. 

The contention of various towns to secure the location of the col- 
leges in them ended in the decision of a government board of arbi- 
trators to fix the College of South Wales at Cardiff and of North 
Wales at Bangor. The annual grant to Aberystwyth was diverted 
to Bangor, but a little later the full grant of $20,000 a year was given 
to Aberystwyth as well as to the other two colleges. Thus at a 
critical moment in its history the college was preserved from removal 
or extinction and a new lease of life given. A fire in 1885 destroying 
a large part of the buildings, proved, as is often the case in public 
institutions, a blessing. Additional funds were raised, and later a 
Government grant was made for building purposes. By 1888 Ab- 
erystwyth was strong enough to claim recognition by a charter simi- 

^Cf. infra, p. 71. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 71 

]ar to those of the other two colleges and a permanent grant. The 
case was established " that in the district lying between Bangor and 
Cardiff there was ample room for another college." 

To appreciate the next stage in the movement toward a university 
and the parallel progress of the three colleges we must turn to the 
establishment of the other two colleges. 

The immediate occasion of the University College of South Wales 
and Monmouthshire was the report in 1881 of the Government's De- 
partmental Committee of Inquiry into the nature and extent of ex- 
isting intermediate and higher education in Wales/ and incidentally 
the success of the University College at Aberystwyth. The recom- 
mendation of the committee that there should be established a uni- 
versity college for South Wales in the County of Glamorgan as well 
as a college in North Wales caused the towns of Cardiff and Swansea 
to vie with each other to secure it. The Government proposed an 
annual grant of $20,000 for maintenance upon the condition that an 
equal amount should be raised locally.^ Cardiff was able by private 
munificence to outbid Swansea and obtained the college. Cardiff at 
that time had a little over 80,000 inhabitants.^ It is a modern in- 
dustrial city of rapid growth and of rather heterogeneous popula- 
tion. Situated on the border of Wales, within Glamorganshire, it 
is only three miles from the boundary of Monmouthshire. The 
neighboring collieries and commercial opportunities have attracted 
many non- Welsh people, some of whom after making their fortunes 
there return to England. It has brought the college the advantage 
of the largest, wealthiest, and most cosmopolitan city in Wales to- 
gether with the disadvantages in rural and Welsh eyes of not being 
thoroughly national and of not having a united constituency so 
ready to make financial sacrifices for higher education. The college, 
relatively speaking, has suffered equally with the others from 
poverty. It was opened and is still in part housed in old infirmary 
buildings. 

The college, backed by South Wales and the city, under the virile 
leadership of its first principal,* quick to respond to the de- 
mands of its environment, from the beginning became marked as a 
modern urban or almost municipal college in comparison with its 
two rural sisters at Aberystwyth and Bangor. 

iCf. supra, p. 70. 

2 The committee cited the precedents of Scotland and Ireland for the grant of public 
funds. Glasgow had been granted $600,000 toward new buildings, and Edinburgh was 
promised $400,000. Ireland had received for buildings of Queen's colleges, $500,000. In 
1881-2 Ireland's two universities and Queen's colleges had $126,940 annually, and the 
Scotch universities $94,900 for maintenance 

sin 1911 Cardiff's population was 188,495; Bangor, 11,237; Aberystwyth, 8,412. 

* The late John Viriamu Jones ; cf. Ms Life, by Katherine Vlriamu Jones. London, 
Smith Elder & Co., 1915. 



72 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

The principal with great enthusiasm rallied local interest to the 
support of the college and encouraged the establishment of evening 
classes, of a social settlement, and the development of departments 
concerned with the enterprises of the community. At the same time 
inheriting the traditions of an intensely Welsh and religious family 
he was an advocate of unity among the three colleges, and of the uni- 
fication of a Welsh educational system from bottom to top pivoted in 
a national university. 

He emphasized the provision of the charter " to give such technical 
instruction as may be of immediate service in professional and com- 
mercial life; and further, to promote higher education generally by 
providing for persons who are not matriculated students instruction 
in the form " of what we know as university extension. 

The college was the first of the three to be incorporated and there- 
fore in accordance with its charter the first to admit " female stu- 
dents." The charter, formed largely upon those of University Col- 
lege, London, and of Owen's College, Manchester,^ forbade any relig- 
ious tests and the acceptance of any endowment for theological pur- 
poses. In these respects and with slight variations the charter be- 
came the model of the charters of the sister colleges. 

Two adverse influences had to be met. The nonsectarian character 
of the institutions caused them to be looked upon as anti-Christian in 
an era of intense denominationalism.^ The welcome given to the 
college at Cardiff by the local episcopal dean, and the expressions 
of kindly sympathy for the National College by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, upon a visit to Lampeter in 1885, were not sufficient 
to allay the fears of some of the churchmen friends of Lampeter, 
and even increased the suspicions of some nonconformists. An 
outcry was raised by many of the nonconformist supporters of 
Aberystwyth which caused Mr. Mundella to exclaim, " Can noth- 
ing be done to satisfy the Welsh nonconformists that their ap- 
prehensions are unreasonable and groundless?" Lord Aberdare, 
the loyal president of Aberystwyth, who became also the president of 
Cardiff, was constrained to write : " I wonder the Welsh are not 
ashamed of their contemptible opposition to Cardiff and Bangor. 
They would have it appear that the two most populous and stirring 
towns in North and South Wales are disqualified to be sites of col- 
leges because there is a cathedral in one of them and near the other." 
The high Christian character and the prominence in the religious 
activities of their several denominations of the principals and of the 
overwhelming majority of the teaching staffs have in time won the 
subsidence of this opposition. 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 72-75, 
112-113. 

sCf. supra, pp. 40, 43. 



THE UNIVERSITY OP WALES. 73 

The other antagonism which had to be overcome was that of the 
headmasters of the endowed grammar and proprietary schools. They 
feared their interests would be affected by the steps proposed for 
both intermediate and higher education in the report of Lord Aber- 
dare's committee. He found in operation only 13 endowed schools 
in North Wales, 11 in South Wales, and three in Monmouthshire 
with an attendance of only 1,805. Only three of these schools were 
for girls. There were 79 private schools for boys and 73 for girls 
with a total attendance of 4,158. It was estimated that secondary 
school accommodation ought to be furnished for not less than 
15,700 boys alone. The headmasters, at a conference in 1884, formed 
a provisional committee to \^fitch the progress of the intermediate 
education bill, and passed a resolution that the age of admission to 
the State-aided Welsh colleges should be raised to 17, and that high 
entrance examinations should make it unnecessary to give elementary 
instruction in the colleges. 

As the outcome of the religious opposition ended happily and the 
theological colleges were associated with the university, so it was with 
that of the schoolmasters. They were represented in the govern- 
ment of the colleges and the university, and though 16 is the mini- 
mum age for admission a definition of intermediate education of a 
good standard was secured in the act.^ 

The recommendation of Lord Aberdare's committee, which re- 
sulted in the opening of the University College for South Wales in 
Cardiff, resulted in the opening of the sister College of North Wales 
a year later in 1884 at Bangor, after the claims of 13 competing 
towns for its location had been considered. Within one year above 
$150,000 had been subscribed by a house-to-house canvass from about 
8,000 persons in rural North Wales and among the quarrymen. The 
college received an annual maintenance grant of $20,000. Like its 
sister colleges it was opened in temporary buildings to which adjoin- 
ing scientific laboratories were soon added. 

By 1888 the college began to receive supplementary grants from 
the Government, and subscriptions for agricultural education in 
North Wales. Three dairy schools in connection with the college and 
an agricultural department were opened. In 1897 the college secured 
the use of a farm for practical instruction and experiments. Re- 
sponsive to its environment and rooted in its scientific laboratories 
Bangor has developed special interest in agricutural education. 

It has been favored on two other sides by being at the seat of a 
cathedral, of two theological colleges, and of two training colleges, 

1 "A course of education . . . which includes instruction in Latin, (heelt, the 
Welsh and English languages and literature, modern languages, mathematics, natural and 
applied science, or some of such studies, and generally in the higher branches of knowl- 
edge." 



74 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

one of them dating from 1862. It has become the recognized educa- 
tional center of North Wales. 

In 1886 we find the three sister colleges each settled in its own 
independent household and each receiving an equal grant of $20,000 
a year for maintenance from the Government. They entered upon 
a period of generous rivalry which has never altogether ceased. 
They were more or less interrelated by certain representatives in 
common upon their boards. Their common interests in higher edu- 
cation, their inability to confer degrees, and their desire to be some- 
thing more than preparatory schools for the London University ex- 
aminations, or for Oxford and Cambridge, brought them into co- 
operation to secure a University of Wales. The time was favorable. 
The awakened sense of Welsh nationality coincided with fortuitous 
legislative measures. The recommendations of Lord Aberdare's com- 
mittee with reference to secondary education and those pertaining 
directly to the colleges slowly found their way into legislation. They 
made possible a school system preparatory to a university. The 
recommendations included provisions for the establishment of unde- 
nominational schools for boys and girls supported by local rates 
and Parliamentary grants, for exhibitions to aid scholars to pass to 
the higher schools, and for the inspection and supervision of these 
schools. The means for fulfilling these purposes followed one by 
one. In 1888 county councils were established by the Local Govern- 
ment Act. In 1889 the Technical Education Act gave the councils 
power to levy a local rate. In the same year the Welsh Intermediate 
Education Act inaugurated secondary public schools, upon whose 
county governing bodies were representatives of some one of the 
three Welsh university colleges. In the following year (1890) by a 
stroke of good fortune the Local Taxation Act (" whisky money") 
allotted to the funds of counties and county boroughs large sums 
which they were at liberty to devote to technical education, and 
which they did in Wales. This gave a great impetus to intermediate 
schools. 

The coordination of these schools and their inspection led to the 
establishment of the Central Welsh Board for Intermediate Educa- 
tion,^ to Avhich was committed the inspection of these schools in 1897. 
This action followed an extended discussion if the authority to 
inspect schools should not be lodged in the new university. The 
Joint County Education Committees of Wales and Monmouthshire, 
from whom proceeded the Central Welsh Board, had such influence 

1 Established in 1896 under the Welsh Intermediate Education aet of 1SS9. Of the 81 
members, 48 represent the county councils and county boroughs ; 17, the universities ; 10, 
the teachers, and 6 are coopted. The chief function of the board is the annual inspec- 
tion and examination of the secondary schools, the allocation of Treasury grants depend- 
ing upon its report. Cf. Papers read at a conference convened by Central Welsh Board. 
Llandrindod Wells, May 20, 1915. (Roberts & Co., Cardiff.) 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 75 

in the preparation of the draft charter of the university that the 
university was only given power to inspect schools upon request 
from the schools. The coordination of the secondary schools with 
the university was chiefly to be effected by the representation of the 
proposed Central Board upon the University Court through six 
members and by three persons appointed by the head teachers of 
public intermediate schools. 

The time was ripe for Wales to bring forth her national university. 
She had a popular, locally governed, and State-aided school system 
with provision for passing pupils from the elementary to the sec- 
ondary grades, whose standards were maintained by a central board. 

The system was in close sympathy with the three aspiring and 
inspiring young university colleges, which were multiplying depart- 
ments responsive to local demands. A supply of prepared students 
was assured by the increased number of secondary schools and the 
opposition of the endowed schools had ceased. Wales was cited as 
having the groundwork of a model for a school system in the days 
of struggling toward one by a series of educational acts in England. 
But comparisons made it seem more anomalous to have a system 
lacking a university or head of its own or having a triple head in 
the three colleges. It became inevitable that all the educational 
forces in the Principality should unite to renew the movement for a 
university. It was stimulated by the examples of the University of 
London and of Victoria University federating colleges in different 
centers.^ 

CHAPTER IX.— THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 

The renewed movement for the creation of a University of Wales 
was continuous and persistent from 1887 until the charter was 
granted in 1893. The movement was most democratic, gathering into 
itself every available force in the Principality. Intensely national, 
it was launched at a meeting of the Cymmorodorion section of the 
National Eisteddfod in London, in 1887. It followed the report of 
a royal commission, appointed in 1886, on the working of elementary 
education since the act of 1870. In the discussion on Welsh educa- 
tion in the Cymmorodorion the need for the University of Wales 
definitely emerged in connection with the training of teachers for 
elementary and intermediate schools. The Cymmorodorion section 
passed a resolution that the university colleges of Wales ought to be 
placed in the same position as the training colleges as regards the re- 
ception of grants for the training of teachers. The society sum- 
moned an educational conference which met at Shrewsbury in Janu- 
ary, 1888. This conference resolved that " it was expedient that the 
provision for intermediate and collegiate education should be com- 

*Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bullelin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 08, 108. 



76 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

pleted by university organization; that the inspection of State- 
aided intermediate schools should be committed to the university 
with representatives of such schools on its executive body, and that 
the Welsh members of Parliament should be interested in the move- 
ment." A little later the colleges at Cardiff and Bangor proposed to 
Aberystwyth joint action " with a view to obtaining a university 
charter for Wales on the basis of the recent charter of the Victoria 
University." A conference of the representatives of the three col- 
leges declared that the time had come " when these colleges should 
conjointly apply to the Government for a charter for the establish- 
ment of the University of Wales." A deputation from the confer- 
ence was presented by Lord Aberdare, who had been so effective as 
the chairman of the departmental committee, to the president of the 
privy council. In their petition for a university charter they showed 
that nearly 650 students were attending the three colleges; that a 
larger attendance might be expected under the intermediate educa- 
tion act; and that one-eighth of the bachelor's degrees in art and 
science conferred by the University of London, in the preceding 
year, had been gained by the students of their colleges. In reply the 
president invited them to prepare a draft charter and to submit it 
to him. 

From this time (1889) until the completion of the draft charter 
and its presentation and acceptance in 1893 a series of conferences, 
representative of the three colleges and of the joint intermediate 
education committees, deliberated upon the draft charter. Not 
only was the attempt made to perfect the charter by four or 
five years of deliberation but also to make it national by what was 
practically a referendum. The draft charter was submitted to the 
colleges, to all the county councils, and to the press. It passed the 
ordeal of all sorts of public discussion during six months before its 
presentation to the privy council. It had to cope with two or 
three divergences of opinion of a fundamental character. Under 
English influence Wales had been a battle field between the prepara- 
tion of candidates for degrees given merely upon the passing of the 
examinations of the University of London and the preparation for 
admission to the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The 
advocates of a teaching university prevailed on the whole in the 
charter. Those who pleaded for a system of examinations and in- 
spection of schools by the university, similar to the practice of 
Oxford and Cambridge, gained only a permissive clause, the legal 
inspection being reserved to the oncoming central Welsh board. The 
promoters of the charter, after extensive studies of other universitias, 
intended it to carry out a consistent educational theory adapted to 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 77 

the needs of Wales at the time and promising a degree of perma- 
nency.^ 

The charter of the university did not set up strictly speaking a 
federal university. It established a confederation of the three pre- 
viously incorporated and self-governing colleges. "An association,'' 
Principal Roberts called it, "of the three university colleges for the 
training of their-students." ^ His ideal was " a trinity of colleges 
in the unity of the university." 

Each college retained its independence with its own governing 
body, its financial managemedt, its powers of appointment, of cre- 
ation of departments, organization of faculties, and of discipline. 
The " trinity " was substantial ; the " unity " in the university some- 
what shadowy, restricted to conferring degrees and diplomas upon 
students presented by the colleges as having " pursued a scheme of 
study approved by the university " and having passed examinations 
conducted by the university. Every precaution was taken to preserve 
the equality of the colleges, and to preclude the misapprehension that 
the institution entailed " a separate place of instruction to be styled 
par excellence, ' The University,' located either in one of the univer- 
sity towns or in some other center. The university, so far as its 
higher teaching and examining functions are concerned, is the three 
constituent colleges." ^ 

The university is on wheels. Like a court it has a circuit. Its 
examinations are held at each of the three colleges on the same 
days. Its degrees are conferred annually at that one of the colleges 
whose principal is vice chancellor at the time. The university court 
meets once in each year in one of the university college towns taken 
in rotation. 

Each of the principals of the three colleges serves in rotation 
as vice chancellor of hte university for a term of two years.* 

The national character of the university appears in the wide 
representation of the people themselves in the constitution of the 
university court, in which the entire legislative and executive power 
of the institution is vested. An exact equality of college repre- 
sentation is also insured in the court. This body consists of some 

1 Cf. British Universities : Notes and Summaries contributed by Members of the Senate 
of the Uni. Coll. of North Wales, with introduction by W. Rhj^s Roberts, M. A. Man- 
chester, J. E. Cornish, 1892. 

The University of Wales and its Educational Theory. An Address by Isambard 0w«n, 
M. A., M. D Reprinted from the Journal of Education, May, 1898. London, C. F. 
Hodgson & Son, High Holborn, 1898. 

The University of Wales in its relation to the National Life. A paper read before the 
Liverpool Welsh National Society, 1894, by Principal T. F. Roberts, Aberystwyth. 

2 Cymmrodor, the Magazine of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorlon. 1890-91. Edited 
by Egerton Phillimore. Vol. XI, 1892, p. 234. 

Cf. mipra, p. 43; infra, pp. 92, 95. 

"Roberts, T. F., supra. The University of Wales, etc., p. 2, 

*Cf. supra, p. 32, passim. 



78 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

100 members, of whom at present 27 are representatives of the 
county councils and county boroughs, and 36 of the three colleges, 
12 appointed by each of the colleges. Of each of the 12, 4 are 
professors appointed by the college senate giving direct profes- 
sorial representation in the court. 

The university senate consists of all the heads of the depart- 
ments of instruction in the several colleges. 

The senate is purely an advisory body to the court with ref- 
erence to schemes of university studies or examinations. 

Each constituent college is " entitled to propose schemes of study 
and examination for its own students as qualifications for the sev- 
eral initial degrees of the university." These are submitted to the 
university senate, which has power to recommend them to the court 
for approval or to refer back to the college or to reject. The col- 
lege has the right to appeal to the court. The design was to main- 
tain the university standards as a whole without the formal enact- 
ment of university curricula or syllabuses of examination. This 
provision to secure an equivalence of the courses of study was sup- 
posed not to interfere with the liberty of a body of teachers or 
an individual teacher in shaping courses. There was the further 
safeguard that schemes of study and examinations might be ap- 
proved by the court specifically " for the college and for the degree 
in question." The practical success of the theory of this part of 
the university's constitution is challenged by some of the reformers.^ 
The third corporate authority of the university is not given the 
usual name of " convocation," but of " guild of graduates." The 
framers of the draft-charter intended it to be a working guild for 
the continuance of fellowship and the cultivation of learning among 
the children of the university. It was to administer independent 
funds for the encouragement of learning and original research. 
The charter, as adopted, left only the power of collecting funds for 
the university for the foundation of scholarships and prizes. The 
guild elects 13 members of the university court and, like the general 
council of a Scotch university or the convocations of the new English 
universities, "may make representations to the court on any matter 
concerning* the interests of the university." ^ The guild, like the 
university court, is required to visit each of the colleges of the 
university in annual rotation. 

The guild of graduates is composed of all graduates, in the case 
of the bachelor's degree of two years' standing, honorary graduates 
and members of the teaching staff of any of the constituent colleges. 

Although not enumerated in the charter among the authorities of 
the university, the external examiners are important oflScials. The 

1 See infra, pp. 78, 79. 

• Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 159, 167, 168. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 79 

charter prescribed that " every examination conducted by the court 
as a qualification for a degree shall be conducted by external examin- 
ers jointly with internal examiners appointed by the constituent col- 
leges, and no examiner's report shall be received unless the external 
examiners have concurred in the report." The intention was on the 
one hand to have the examinations conducted by the teachers them- 
selves, as in the Scotch and American universities, and correlated 
to the courses of study that the candidates had pursued. On the 
other hand, it was thought to satisfy the public as to the standards 
and impartiality of the examinations of the new university by reserv- 
ing the ultimate authority to external examiners. It was believed 
that the evils of passing examinations alone as a qualification for a 
first degree and of having to conform courses of tudy to syllabuses 
of examinations were escaped by the setting up of schemes of study 
approved by the university. In view of the ultimate authority of 
the external examiners and the exigencies of agreement on the part 
of independent departments in the same subject in the several col- 
leges the reformers of to-day query if the evils have been avoided. 

The regulations for initial degrees emphasize the teaching side 
of the university by the requirements that a " qualifying scheme " 
of study shall be composed of a certain number of courses of study 
in sequence, and covering a qualifying period of study of at least 
three years of about 40 weeks each. Consecutive stages in a qualify- 
ing period are marked off. Honor courses are offered. The result 
is practically an elective group system of studies, for which each 
college is responsible, tested by university intermediate and final 
examinations. 

Consonant with the interest in theology in Wales one of the 
original contributions of the charter is an arrangement for instruc- 
tion and degrees in theology which does not infringe the secular 
character of the university or compromise the theological colleges.^ 
The charters of the university and of the constituent colleges de- 
barred them from undertaking theological education. Without 
evasion of this prohibition, in line with the power given to the court 
to recognize teachers and courses for degrees in other institutions 
than a constituent college, the court was permitted to recognize the- 
ology as a subject in the faculty of arts or letters, and to admit to 
a theological degree graduates of universities after pursuing a 
" scheme of study " in a recognized theological college. The respon- 
sibility for the theological schemes of study and examinations is 
vested in the university court and not in the university senate which, 
of course, would have no representative of theological departments. 
The court has met the situation by defining and recognizing as an 

iCf. supra, p. 39. 



80 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

" associated theological college *' one approved and accepted by the 
court as providing instruction in all the subjects required by the 
university for theological degrees. Such a college must be in Wales 
and have a staff of at least four teachers in the subjects required 
hf the university for degrees in theology. 

The court appoints a committee of advice called the theological 
board and pays proper expenses incurred by it. The board consists 
of two persons appointed by each associated theological college, of 
six persons appointed by the university senate, of two by the univer- 
sity guild, and of nine appointed by the court from persons not mem- 
bers of the teaching staff of an associated theological college.^ Four 
of the nine persons are to be learned in theology but not members of 
the court. The duties of the board are to recommend to the court 
schemes of study and examinations, the names of examiners, and to 
report upon the qualifications of theological colleges. The churches 
of England, of Scotland, and the principal nonconformist churches 
are represented on the board and among the examiners, together with 
nontheological scholars. The theological senate consists of the teach- 
ing staffs in the associated theological colleges and of all doctors in 
divinity of the university. They are recognized teachers of their 
subjects by the university but receive no salaries from it. The theo- 
logical senate reports to the theological board upon matters concern- 
ing studies and examinations in the faculty of theology. 

The charter was the first to " strike out a new line providing for 
a degree of bachelor or master in education open to those who have 
already graduated in arts or science." It even proposed a " faculty 
of education." This was a great step forward in the movement for 
bringing teachers into touch Avith English universities which has been 
dated back to 1853, when Owen's College started lectures for school- 
masters. Though Matthew Arnold, in 1863, recommended that uni- 
versity examinations and degrees should be made accessible to teach- 
ers in elementary schools, and the Scotch education department, in 
1873, approved of the attendance of scholars from the training col- 
leges in a Scotch university, it was not until 1888 that the establish- 
ment of day training colleges, in connection with the university, was 
recommended by the royal commission on the working of the elemen- 
tary education act of 1870 in England and Wales. Previous to the 
adoption of the charter separate training colleges had been estab- 
lished in Wales, e. g., the Normal School, in 1862, at Bangor. The 
friends of the university were working for a " unity of organization 

1 In 1915 the associated theological colleges were Aberystwyth (Calvinistic Methodist) ; 
Bala (Calvinistic Methodist) ; Bangor (Baptist College) ; and Bangor (Independent Col- 
lege). These two Bangor colleges form a "Joint School of Theological Studies"; Brecon 
(Congregational) ; Cardiff (S. Wales, Baptist) ; Carmarthen (Presbyterian) ; Lampeter 
(Church of England) : and Mansfield (Congregational), Oxford, are approved but not 
"associated" at this time. 



1 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 81 

which should give greater breadth and diversity in the training of 
teachers. It was said elementary teachers should have the advantages 
of a university education and that the training colleges should be 
linked with the universities. Three methods of settling the ques- 
tion in Wales were discussed. First, the Scotch system in which the 
training college offers a complete education both general and techni- 
cal but is established in a university town so that certain select 
students may attend university classes.' Second, an arrangement like 
that carried out for the theological colleges by which the general 
education of the teachers should be given wholly in the university 
and the technical training in the theory and practice of education 
be provided by independent associated training colleges. It was 
argued against this plan that there was not the same reason for di- 
vision in the training of teachers as in the training of divinity stu- 
dents, and there were the positive disadvantages of divided authority 
and of increased expense. The charter adopted a third plan, by 
which the training of teachers should be a department of work in 
the university, combining the general training of teachers with tech- 
nical training in the theory and practice of education.^ 

Accordingly the university colleges were among the earliest to 
appoint professors of education in the faculties of arts and of sci- 
ence, and to open departments for the training of elementary and 
secondary teachers. The intention, however, of the charter to have a 
faculty of education and degrees in education has not been carried 
out. Only a certificate in education open to university graduates 
has been offered. Neither has the problem of the relation of train- 
ing colleges to the university been solved ; hence the subject has been 
included in the terms of reference to the royal commission. 

Certain omissions in the charter, despite the fact it was so ad- 
vanced a document for its day, are indicative in part of the wisdom 
of not undertaking too much in the first stages of a university and, 
in part, of the tardy development in the British Isles of certain uni- 
versity ideas. The happy progress of the university in the first 
decade of its operation brought these points to the surface. In the 
meantime they had been embodied in the charters of the new Eng- 
lish universities. 

The result was that some of these things were taken up in a peti- 
tion for a supplemental charter granted in 1906. Provision was 
made for degrees in recognition of research but open only to mem- 
bers of the guild of graduates. The degree of magister in recogni- 

1 Cf. supra Life of John V. Jones and T. F. Roberts' University of Wales in its relation 
to the National Life 

2Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 49, 87, 210, 
212. 

89725°— 17 6 



82 HIGHEE EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

tion of research may, however, be obtained by the graduate of any 
approved university upon presentation, through one of the colleges, 
of evidence of being qualified to pursue a scheme of advanced study 
or research and successfully pursuing such a scheme for three years 
and submitting " a work or works embodying the methods and results 
of the researches." 

The framers of the original charter looked to fellowships and 
scholarships and the pursuit of post-graduate schemes of study cov- 
ering prescribed periods for advanced degrees as a means to pro- 
mote research. This was an important departure from the practice 
of conferring the M. A. degree in course, upon the mere payment of 
a fee, by Oxford and Cambridge.^ The faith was professed in the 
union of graduate and undergraduate work in a university. "The 
pursuit of knowledge is in danger of growing languid unless kept 
in tone by the obligation of conmiunicating it, and educational meth- 
ods of becoming dry and barren if they be not refreshed by irriga- 
tion from the living spring of original intellectual work." 

The petition for the supplemental charter recognized " the de- 
sirability of carrying on research study and instruction in diverse 
branches in technical and applied science in contact with the indus- 
tries to which they are related, and in such localities as offer special 
facilities therefor whether such localities are the seats of constituent 
colleges or no." This desire was met by empowering the university 
to affiliate in the university faculty of science or of technical or 
applied science or both any public educational institution in Wales, 
which is adequately equipped and endowed for the promotion of 
research study and instruction, even in one branch of technical or 
applied science. Up to this moment there are no such university 
official affiliations, but agreements have been effected with certain 
bodies by one or more of the colleges, and stimulus has been given 
to departments involved in the colleges. The university still has 
but the one faculty of science which includes applied science and 
agriculture. 

The formative period of the university, beginning with the first 
concrete movement for a charter in 1888, may be considered as closed 
with the appointment of the royal commission in 1916. In the early 
days it was a time of rapid expansion. Preparatory to the charter 
the colleges were active in strengthening their positions. Under 
the impetus given by the charter they continued to multiply de- 
partments with slight regard to duplication, and latterly entered 
upon a building era involving them in indebtedness. 

In 1888 the number of students attending the three colleges was 
650. The preceding year one-eighth' of the bachelor's degrees in 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 215, 217. 
Cf. supra, p. 42. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 83 

arts and science at the London University were taken by Welsh 
students. In 1900 the number of students in the University of 
Wales was 1,310.^ The total has never greatly exceeded this and 
in 1913-14 was 1,325.^ The number qualifying for degrees in 1914 
Avas 331.3 

All the colleges have developed on about the same level the ordi- 
nary departments which prepare for the degrees of the faculties of 
arts, science, music, and theology on the nontheological side. 

Specialization due to local environment is making itself felt in 
an increasing degree. 

Aberystwyth, where agricultural education of collegiate grade 
was first undertaken, has organized a strong agricultural depart- 
ment, and receives grants from the board of agriculture and from 
seven county councils. The college has been made the center for agri- 
cultural education by the board of agriculture under its scheme for 12 
areas for the United Kingdom, and it is the place of residence of 
the agricultural commissioner for Wales.* A farm for demonstra- 
tions and exj)eriments has been secured. The courses of instruc- 
tion range from those for a university degree to short courses for 
farmers and teachers. There are special courses in dairying. Ex- 
tension lectures and farm demonstrations are given. 

Aberystwyth is the only one of the colleges with a full depart- 
ment of law having a combined course leading to a B. A. and an 
LL, D. degree.^ Recently the college has given prominence to the 
subjects of geograph}^ and colonial history. 

At Cardiff, as early as 1889, the Drapers' Company of London 
made a grant which resulted, m ith assistance from the local employers 
of labor in mining and manufactures, in the opening of a school of 
engineering in 1896. To-day " the engineering school comprises the 
scientific, and, as far as possible, the practical sides of mechanical, 
civil, and electrical engineering.** There is also a mining depart- 
ment offering a three years' course for the degree of B. Sc. in min- 
ing of the university; a three years' course for the diploma in 

1 Aberystwyth, 437 ; Bangor, 305 ; Cardiff, 568. 

» This number is exclusive of those in short courses and tutorial classes ; Aberystwyth, 
437 ; Bangor, 312 ; Cardiff, 576. 

SM. A., 24 (3 women) ; M. Sc, 8 ; B. D., 6 ; B. A., 212 (83 women) ; B. Sc, 81 (11 
women). 

* Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 142. See infra, 
pp. 94, 95. 

* At Cardiff, by an arrangement between the college and the Joint Board of Legal Edu- 
cation for Wales, a lecturer and a teacher prepare students for the examinations of the 
Law Society. 

* At Bangor, in 1890, the professor of physics began a department of electrical engi- 
neering which is now maintained by an annual grant from the Drapers' Company of Lon- 
don. A course of lectures and practical work covering two years are offered to non- 
matriculants. Matriculants may take a three years' course for the university degree in 
applied electricity. 



84 HIGHER EDUCATION IN lEELAND AND WALES. 

mining of the college. Nonmatriculants or " occasional students " 
may be admitted to courses. 

An interesting moment has been reached in the development of 
technical education in this region, Kecently three technical schools 
have risen independent of the University College, indicating a pos- 
sible drift contrary to the policy of association pursued by the 
college. It offers a point for consideration by the Royal Commission 
in the coordination of secondary with university education. 

The City of Cardiff Technical College was associated in 1889 with 
tlie University College, but in 1908 was disassociated from it. This 
ilid not imply any animosity. The Cardiff education committee an- 
nounce the setting up of " the educational ladder " in their reor- 
ganized scheme for technical education reaching from the elementary 
schools through the Technical College to the University College. 
They offer free studentships and scholarships tenable at the Uni- 
versity College for residents in Cardiff who are students of the City 
technical College. At the opening in 1916 of the magnificent new 
Technical College in Cathays Park the Lord Mayor said : " Almost 
side by side in this park, giving dignity to our ideals, the Universit}'^ 
College and the Technical College both will play their parts, not in 
unfriendly rivalry, but rather in close cooperation." ^ 

The South Wales and Monmouthshire School of Mines has been 
established by the principal coal owners in the region for improving 
technological instruction in all branches of coal mining. The central 
school is at Treforest and another school at Crumlin in the heart of 
the coal fields. There are departments of mining, geology, and 
surveying, of mechanical engineering, of electrical engineering, and 
of chemical engineering. A four-years' diploma course in coal min- 
ing is given jointly by the School of Mines and the University Col- 
lege. Post-diploma studentships are available either at the Univer- 
sity College or the School of Mines. The establishment of research 
Vi'ork and laboratories at the school and not at the university is con- 
templated by the management with the wealth it has at its command. 

In the not distant rival city to Cardiff is the Swansea Technical 
College, in close touch with the metallurgical firms and works of 
South Wales. It advertises courses in pure science, engineering 
(civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical), and metallurgy for 
matriculated students preparing for the University of London 
II Sc. degree. It has its own diploma courses and courses for the 
first medical examinations. 

The University College, Cardiff, offers a limited number of short 
courses in agriculture and dairying science for which it receives a 

1 Address by Dr. R. J. Smith, Lord Mayor, Mar. 13, 1916. The estimated cost of the 
building is about $315,000. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 85 

grant from the Glamorgan County council. The counties of Gla- 
morgan and of Monmouth have not accepted the recommendation of 
the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries that they should be in the 
agricultural province associated with Aberystwyth College.^ 

Cardiff is the only one of the three university colleges having a 
faculty of medicine and a department of public health. The college 
has arrangements with King Edward VII's Hospital, Cardiff, by 
which students of the college have opportunities for clinical instruc- 
tion in the hospital. The privileges also of the Cardiff Hospital for 
Infectious Diseases are open to the students. At present three years 
of a five-years' medical course may be taken in Cardiff at moderate 
expense and recognized for degrees by the Universities of London, 
Cambridge, etc.. This school of medicine seems destined just now to 
mark a turning point in the history of higher education in Wales. It 
was not intended when it was established to provide for more than 
the first three years of medical study. It advanced, however, in 1899 
to the offer of graduate tuition for the diploma of public health. It 
was fortunate in having in the same city the King Edward VII Hos- 
pital which has been favored with large gifts. The ambition to have 
a complete national medical school for Wales appealed to the 
public. In 1912 a donor came forward with a gift of $150,000 to 
house the physiological department, and he has since offered $300,000 
more for buildings on certain conditions. One of his conditions is 
that "the grant made by the treasury should be adequate for the 
upkeep and maintenance of a first-rate medical school." This has 
resulted in the appointment of the Royal Commission-. 

The University College, Bangor, has given special attention to 
agriculture since 1888, when it received a small grant out of the sum 
of $25,000 voted for the first time by Parliament for the promotion 
of agricultural education. A scheme of agricultural education for 
North Wales was laid out. Three dairy schools in connection with 
the college were established and an agricultural department opened 
in the college. 

In 1897 the college secured the use of a farm. In 1912, aided by 
the Board of Agriculture and moneys from the development fund, 
the college entered upon the work of technical advice to farmers and 
the investigation of local agricultural problems. Under the plan for 
12 agricultural provinces ^ of the Board of Agriculture the Bangor 
College is the center with which the four counties of North Wales are 
associated. The first farm school, however, in Wales, opened in 1913 
in Carnarvon County, is conducted apart from the college. 

»Cf. supra, 83. »Cf. infra, p. 90. "Cf. supra, p. 83. 



86 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

Bangor alone ^ of the three colleges has a forestry department 
which was formed in 1904 with the aid of a small grant from the 
Board of Agriculture. In 1912 the board proposed that the forestry 
department of this college should be responsible for advisory work 
for the whole of Wales, with the exception of Glamorganshire, and 
for the adjacent English counties of Cheshire and Shropshire. 

Bangor is unique among the three colleges in adding to the teach- 
ers' training department classes in kindergarten training, preparing 
for the theoretical and practical examinations of the National Froe- 
bel Union. 

As we have seen, the three colleges were opened in preexisting 
structures which had to be adjusted to their purposes. All have 
since entered upon a building era which has been furthered, especially 
since the organization of the university, by private munificence, local 
authorities, and State aid. 

At Aberystwyth, after the destruction by fire of a large part of the 
fine college building, it was reerected, with improvements. In 1895 
and 1896 Aberystwyth and Bangor each received special grants of 
$50,000 for building purposes and Cardiff a conditional grant of 
$100,000. In 1907 Aberystwyth opened new chemical laboratories in 
a fine building given by private donors. It is on a site of some eleven 
acres on a hillside some distance from the college buildings on the 
sea front. 

The National Library of Wales, on a more lofty site in the same 
direction, lends special benefits to the college and increases the promi- 
nence of educational buildings at this center.^ About 1908 an old 
vicarage field fortunately near the college was acquired for playing 
fields, and private liberality, assisting the Old Students' Association, 
built and equipped a gymnasium. The Alexandra Hall of Resi- 
dence, of which the first two wings were opened as early as 1896, 
accommodates 200 women students. It is beautifully located on the 
sea front at a convenient distance from the college. 

Cardiff, stimulated by the offer of the treasury grant referred to 
above, appealed to the public for building funds. The total amount 
received by 1912 from subscriptions, a gift of $80,000 from the 
Drapers' Company and the treasury grant, was above $575,000. In 
1900 the corporation of Cardiff gave a magnificent site for the new 
college buildings in Cathays Park. The administrative and liberal 
arts blocks were completed in 1909 and the Viriamu Jones Memorial 
Physical Eesearch Laboratory in 1912. The college buildings 
planned for extension harmonize architecturally with the splendid 

1 Aberystwyth aunounces that " an opportunity is afforded of studying forestry " in the 
woods of its farm, and Cardiff that the " establishment of a vacation course in forestry 
for working foresters is under consideration." 

2Cf. tupra, p. 69. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES. 87 

gvou-p of city, county, and national buildings located in Cathays 
Park, which it is proposed to make one of the finest civic centers in 
Europe. It is said " the ultimate aim is to erect the Welsh Parlia- 
ment House " there. 

The new medical buildings in course of erection are on a separate 
site near the old college buildings. 

At Bangor plans for new buildings ran parallel with those at 
Cardiff. In 11)00 the court of governors of the college sought the 
cooperation of the City Council of Bangor to secure a new site and 
buildings. In 1902 the council gave a site on a hill in the city com- 
manding a fine view. A permanent buildings committee was ap- 
pointed which, by 1915, had secured, including a Government grant 
of $100,000, the promise of over $570,000. The London Company of 
Drapers contributed some $75,000 to the library and museum sec- 
tion of the new buildings, to which the arts classes were transferred 
in 1911. Since then a great hall for college ceremonies has been 
added to the present scheme of buildings by a ' private donor. 

Each of the three university colleges is now equipped with modern 
buildings, mostly of stone and of no mean architecture. 

The canon demanding picturesqueness of location for a college is 
met in each case, but in a variety of ways. Aberystwyth " towers in 
pride by the western water's side where wild waves vainly beat along 
the bay." For a background it has mountain, moor, and plain. It 
befits the heart of Wales. 

The classic halls of Cardiff, fronting upon the lawns of the mid- 
way, on the civic center of the rising capital of the Principality, befit 
the urban college. 

Bangor's rising quadrangle, with its tower reminiscent of an 
ancient university, overlooking the cathedral close and the old city 
ensconced beneath it, commands a wide prospect of sea and mountain. 
It befits rugged North Wales. 

The university as contradistinguished from the colleges has but 
one modest office building— the Registrary — located opposite the 
new university college buildings at Cardiff. 

Despite the increasing liberality of private benefactors and of 
Government grants, poverty, so often the scourge of prosperous 
colleges, has been the constant lot of each of the three university 
colleges. They are accustomed to have annual deficits.^ Beginning 
in 1886-87, each college received an annual exchequer grant of $20,000 
until 1909-10, when it was doubled upon the recommendation of the 
quinquennial committee, and Cardiff received an extra amount of 
$7,500 in respect of work done at the medical school. 

1 In 1913-14 the total income of Aberystwyth was $101,235, expenditure, $101,930 ; 
Bangor, income, $96,955, expenditure, $113,620; Cardiff, income, $124,960, expenditure, 
$135,870. Bd Education Reports (1913-14) from Univs. and Univ. Colls., Vol. II 
[Cd. 8138]. 



88 SIGHER EDUCATlOi^ IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

In accordance with one great object of the colleges and university 
to keep down the expenses of education, the students' fees, which are 
nearly uniform in the three colleges, are as moderate as in American 
State universities. They are even distinctly lower than in the new 
English universities.^ In 1913-14 the three colleges received from 
Government the largest percentage (55.3 per cent) of total income 
as compared wath all the English institutions (34 per cent) in receipt 
of exchequer grants. The Welsh deficits - are by no means due alone 
to the small student fees but to the comparative lack of income from 
endowments and from grants from local authorities.^ 

The chief source of the indebtedness of the three colleges arises 
from expenditures not in respect of maintenance but from their 
building operations, which are not yet complete. 

The corporate life of the students is encouraged in the three col- 
leges by the clubs, societies, and athletic sports usual in British uni- 
versities. Aberystwyth and Bangor have a contingent of the officers' 
training corps.* The corps has been popular from the beginning, 
and the w^ar has so proved its worth that it will be considered an 
indispensable adjunct in every college. 

The colleges directly encourage the corporate life by having in 
their buildings "common rooms" for the teaching staff and for the 
men students and the women students. The value of halls of resi- 
dence or hostels is making itself felt more and more. As usual, 
hostels for women were erected. At Aberystwyth, Alexandra Hall 
is owned and controlled by the college, and residence in it is com- 
pulsory for all women students not residing with their parents or 
guardians. Recently a small hostel for men students has been started. 
At Bangor, under a separate board, closely related to the college, 
houses for women students have been opened since 1897. In like 
manner a small hostel for men students has recently been established. 

In the nineties, through the activities of the late Lady Aberdare, 
Aberdare Hall, under its own board of governors, was opened for 
university college women students in Cardiff and has since been 
enlarged. 

^ The fees in arts, $60 a year ; in science, $80 ; etc. 

2 There is a deficit on capital account amounting in round figures to about $100,000 in 
each of tlie three colleges. Report of the Advisory Committee on Grants to Universities 
and Colleges, Ve\). 26, 1914. 

3 In 1913-14 the percentage of total income of the three colleges from fees was 27.2 ; 
of the new English institutions, 28.1. From endowments, 6.5 ; English, 14.8. Annual 
grants from local authorities, 5.9 ; English, 16. 

*Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. IG, p. 244. The Roll 
of Service in the King's Forces to July 31, 1915, contained 718 names (Aberstwyth, 252; 
Bangor, 186; Cardiff, 280). 



CHAPTER X.— THE ROYAL COMMISSION AND EDUCATIONAL PROB= 
LEMS CONFRONTING IT. 

The climax of our studies is reached in the consideration of what 
the sensational press has called " the Welsh educational crisis.*' In 
truth it is a time of reflection, the university having just attained its 
majority. The Welsh, among other democracies, are peculiarly given 
to periodic scrutiny of their institutions. Our somewhat detailed 
survey of the university and its colleges has been necessary to under- 
stand the problems involved. Many of the problems will be of prac- 
tical interest in the United States since they are connected with the 
question of the coordination of institutions, particularly those in 
different localities.^ 

The origin of the official inquiry is friendly. It is intended to 
usher in the next stage of development in higher education in Wales. 
Coinciding with the agitation caused by the war for educational re- 
form the results may reach the entire kingdom. Again, as once be- 
fore, Wales may set an example in education. 

In order to follow the official inquiry it is necessary to premise that 
the national treasury and the board of education, though not enumer- 
ated among the authorities of the university and the colleges, have 
influence here often greater than authority. The treasury makes 
its grants upon the recommendations of a quinquennial advisory 
committee of distinguished educationists on university grants. Two 
such committees have reported. The first in 1908,- the second in 
February, 1914.=* The board of education, London, inter alia, has a 
universities branch (with training of teachers), an office of special 
inquiries and reports, and a Welsh department with inspectors, but 
not directly concerned with the university and its colleges. In 
March, 1914, the board of education appointed a departmental com- 
mittee on the National Medical School for Wales at Cardiff.* The 
appointment of the last committee was precipitated by an application 
for a special grant in aid of the medical school at Cardiff.'' In 
February, 1915, the treasury issued a minute stating that after a 
comparison of the reports of the two last committees it had come " to 



iCf. Maol.ean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. IG, Chap. XIII. 

2 Welsh Colleges Committee Report, 1909. (Cd. 4571.) 

3 Welsh Universities and Colleges (Grants in Aid). Parliamentary Paper. Ordered 
printed by the House of Commons. Apr. 19, 1916. 

* Cf. Parliamentary Paper, ihid. 
»Cf. supra, p. 85. 



90 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

the conclusion that some reorganization of the University of Wales 
was required before they could feel justified in making any addi- 
tional grants from public funds, either to the university and its 
colleges or toward the maintenance of a national medical school." 
This communication was considered by " The Welsh University 
Education Conference of 1915," consisting of representatives of the 
university and of the colleges. The conference sought to have a 
postponement of " the general question of university reorganization 
in consequence of the preoccupations of the war." " In the mean- 
time the treasury was requested to make interim provision for imme- 
diate financial necessities." 

The conference proposed a scheme for the formation of a " Uni- 
versity of Wales Council of Medicine," on which other bodies than 
the university and its colleges were to be represented. The council 
was to ha-^e advisory powers with reference to the school of medicine 
in respect of the allocation of funds, the management of the school, 
and appointments. The scheme has been characterized as " a thing 
of checks and balances designed to reconcile the conflicting interests 
of the university, the Cardiff College, and the Cardiff Hospitah" 
The reply of the treasury to the request of the conference intimated 
that increased grants would be made if the university and colleges 
would agree to ask " for the immediate appointment of a royal com- 
mission on the university, together with a promise to accept the 
decision which His Majesty's Government may arrive at, based on 
the findings of that commission, with regard to the form of the 
university, including the government of the medical school." 

Thus constrained the university and colleges asked for a royal 
commission in accordance with the treasury's suggestions. Accord- 
ingly in April, 1916, the royal commission was appointed. The 
terms of reference of the commission read : " To inquire into the 
organization and work of the University of Wales and its three 
constituent colleges, and into the relations of the university to those 
colleges and to other institutions in Wales providing education of a 
post-secondary nature, and to consider in what respects the present 
organization of university education in W^ales can be improved, and 
what changes, if any, are desirable in the constitution, functions, 
and powers of the university and its three colleges." The commis- 
sion consists of nine members, of which Lord Haldane is chairman, 
well-known as a Parliamentary leader of reforms in all branches of 
education. He will bring his experience in handling university prob- 
lems from the time of his connection with the case before the Privy 
Council for the dissolution of the federal Victoria University, in 
1900, to the report of the royal commission, of which he was chair- 
man, or university education in London in 1913. The membership 



EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. 91 

of the commission will bring together persons associated with the 
various types of federated institutions. They are also from the old 
and new English, the Scotch and the Welsh universities. The 
names ^ of the commissioners show the care taken to represent the 
interests involved in the way of arts and philosophy, of science, of 
agriculture, of medicine, of music, of women, and of secondary and 
elementary education. The commission has visited the three colleges 
and Swansea. It has announced that for reasons of economy it will 
sit in London and take testimony there. 

A glance at some of the public discussions concerning the univer- 
sity indicates the variety and scope of the problems confronting the 
commission. 

The desire to keep the university up-to-date has made itself con- 
stantly felt. It was stimulated within 10 years of the opening of the 
university by the experience of the newly founded English universi- 
ties and even by observation of American universities. Suggestions 
were made drawn from the visit of the Moseley Education Commis- 
sion to the United States. Principal Reichel brought them home to 
the University of Wales.^ He referred to the large " private benefac- 
tions and public expenditure to which there is no parallel in Britain, 
and which is rooted in the profound conviction that education, espe- 
cially on its higher side, is essential to the development of a great 
modern State." He compared the inclination " of the greatest com- 
mercial and industrial firms in America to secure for their highest 
posts college graduates, with the general prejudice of industrial lead- 
ers in the Islands against college training." He discovered that the 
American State university is most analogous to that of Wales. He was 
impressed by the " accrediting " system under which the pupils of high 
schools, inspected by the university, are admitted to the university 
upon the p)resentation of leaving certificates. The presence of a " cul- 
ture element " in the American college of agriculture and mechanic 
arts and technological schools was noted as something lacking in 
Britain. The " almost organic connection between academic and in- 
dustrial life '■ was commended for imitation. " The Welsh habit of 
mind of regarding ability to pass a written examination as the true 
test of training instead of reliance upon the regular work of the stu- 

iThe Right lion. Viscount Haldane of Cloan, O. M., K. T., F. R. S., LL. D. Prof. 
W. H. Bragg, F. R. S , M. A., D. Sc. Quain professor of ph.vsics, University of London. 
The Hon. W. N. Bruce, C. B., a principal assistant secretary under the Board of Educa- 
tion Secondary Schools Branch Sir Owen M. Edwards, M. A., Chief Inspector, Welsh 
Department, Board of Education. W. H. Hadow Esq., M. A., D. Mus., principal of Arm- 
strong College, Newcastle. A. D. Hall, Esq., M. A., F. R. S., a commissioner under the 
Development Act. Sir Henry Jones, M. A., I-L. D., D. Litt., professor of moral philosophy. 
University of Glasgow. Sir William Osier, Bt., F. R. S., M. D., D. Sc, LL. D., D. C. L.. 
regius professor of medicine, University of Oxford. Miss Emily Penrose, M A., principal 
of Somerville College, Oxford. 

' Some interesting features of American universities. An address delivered before the 
guild of graduates, Apr. 7, 1904. Cardiff, 1905. 



92 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

dent was compared with the almost entire freedom of the American 
institutions from this incubus." The American " sumptuous provi- 
sion for gymnastic training," compulsory physical training, and in- 
stitutional control of athletics impressed the visitor with the defects 
in these particulars of the Welsh colleges. 

Graduate study with its laboratory and seminar methods of in- 
struction which increasingly differentiates the American university 
from the mere college was used to stimulate the spirit of research in 
the University of Wales. 

The first strain between the centrifugal and the centripetal forces 
in the university was noticed in 1903-1905, coinciding with the stir 
made by the Moseley Commission. It was the effect in part of the 
dissolution of the Victoria University and of the successful launching 
of the so-called municipal universities. Why should not Cardiff as 
an urban center have its own university? The standard objections 
to the Federal system for a university were discussed in an address 
delivered at Bangor in 1903 by the late Prof. Jebb, who expressed 
as powerfully as it has ever been put the argument from nationality 
for an undivided Welsh University.^ He said : " Are the drawbacks 
to the Federal system outweighed by the fact that the university 
stands for all Wales, * * *. Yes, the advantage outweighs the 
drawbacks. To represent Wales is not merely to represent a geo- 
graphical area and a distinct nationality; it is to represent also a 
well-marked type of national genius, characterized by certain intel- 
lectual bents, by certain literary aptitudes, by certain gifts of imagi- 
nation and sympathy, especially manifested in the love of poetry and 
music — a type of genius which is peculiarly susceptible to the in- 
fluence of humane studies. A university which is the one academic 
expression of such a national genius holds a position of unique inter- 
est and of peculiar strength. It would be a great pity to break it 
up into two or three universities, no one of which could have the same 
prestige. * * * The national sentiment would be divided, the 
strength which it gives would be impaired, and the unavoidable com- 
petition, however generous, might possibly be prejudicial to the inter- 
ests of Welsh education at large." 

In this period the question of a permanent "working head," a 
salaried principal of the university, in place of the vice chancellor- 
ship, rotating biennially among the three principals of the colleges, 
was thrashed out and decided adversely.^ 

The fundamental argument for the new officer, "rector and vice 
chancellor " of the whole university, was that the principals as vice 

1 Cf. supra, p. 40. 

2 Cf. versus " Working Head ' : .Tones, Prof. Henry. The University of Wales : The 
Line of its Growth. An address. Cardiff, Oct. 8, 1905. In favor : Williams, T. Marchant 
(warden of the Guild of Graduates). The University of Wales : Its Past, Its Present, and 
Its Future. An address in reply to Prof. Henry Jones and others. Cardiff, Nov. 7, 1905. 



EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. 93 

chancellors in rotation had "signally failed to preserve a continnit}' 
of university policy." The demands of their own colleges dominated 
them. The administration of the university required the whole time 
of a chief "able to supervise effectively administration of every de- 
partment of the university." The three principals of the constituent 
colleges were to be continued as heads of their institutions but to be 
ranked in the university as junior deputy chancellors. The, at that 
time, recently created office of principal ^ in the University of Lon- 
don beside that of vice chancellor was cited in favor of the scheme. 

In the background of the argument for a " working head " was 
zeal for " Cymru "n Un," a united Wales, aroused by the suggestions 
of the breaking up of the university into three universities. 

In reply it Avas argued that the appointment of a real " working 
head " to run colleges after the analogy of elementary schools or the 
normal colleges of the past was contrary to the very nature of a uni- 
versity, as a self-governing teaching institution and as a place of 
independent research. It would threaten academic freedom. 

It was urged that this kind of academic centralization was in 
danger of embroiling the institutions in schemes for political or even 
national centralization. It would therefore not promote unity either 
within or without the university. The proposal might trench upon 
the principle deduced from educational experience that the political 
state can best serve religion, the direct promotion of morality, and 
higher education by leaving their authorities free to develop their 
institutions. 

The discussions were concluded for the time by the report of the 
treasury's advisory committee in 1908.- The report was adverse to 
any constitutional changes. " Comparing the position of the Uni- 
versity of Wales with that of the new universities in England, we 
find much reason to apprehend that the population in Wales and 
Monmouthshire is not sufficient to maintain more than one univer- 
sity." Looking at the question from the Welsh national point of 
view, the soundness of Prof. Jebb's conclusion was adopted.^ The 
proposal to appoint a permanent executive head of the university 
was rejected. 

Other allusions in the report point to emerging problems which 
await full solutions at the hands of the royal commission.. A " closer 
cooperation among the colleges with a view to greater economy in 
the management of their resources" was suggested. The idea pre- 
sented to the committee was that the three colleges agree that " the 
teaching (or the advanced teaching) in a certain subject shall be cen- 

'■ The office of principal in the University of London, though ably filled, has not met with 
favor, and since it was vacated no attempt has been made to fill it on the plea that it is 
a good place for war economy. 

* Welsh Colleges Committee Keport, 1909. (Cd. 4571.) 

•Cf. supra, p. 92. 



94 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

tralized in the college which is best able to deal with it." "Any such 
centralized department was to be made accessible to all students by 
providing for migration from one college to another." The objection 
that " migration would break the tie of allegiance betwen the student 
and his college" was to be avoided by entering the transferred 
student in the calendar of the second college as a student of the 
original college. A college which allowed advanced work in a par- 
ticular university department to be organized elsewhere was to make 
some provision for the subject. This would meet the contention that 
the college was maimed and less capable of serving its own part of 
the country. 

The report remarks : " The charter empowers the University to 
inspect the constituent colleges but this power has not as yet been 
exercised." It is significantly added that ^ the university has aimed 
at promoting cooperation and has wisely refrained from attempting 
to bring the colleges under the control of a central authority, since 
the university has no power to interfere with the administration of a 
constituent college." 

The committee noted that the " standard of matriculation had been 
rising with the improvement in Welsh secondary schools." They 
recognized that the colleges, for the time being, needed to provide 
for students who came from secondary schools not yet fully equipped. 
They expressed the hope that the university, the central Welsh 
board, and the recently established Welsh department in the board 
of education would cooperate in a further advance of standards, and 
in giving a preference to a system of admission to the university 
by school-leaving certificates in place of written examinations. 

The committee put their fingers upon a world-wide temptation to 
colleges to increase the number of their departments, and to attract 
a large body of students at the expense of inadequate payment of the 
teaching staff.^ The committee commended the aim of the colleges 
to raise the average professorial salary to $2,500. They added that it 
was essential to establish a pension fund for professors. 

They hinted that the financial condition and spirit of the junior 
staff might be helped by the further development of tutorial assist- 
ance and postgraduate study. These things would improve the teach- 
ing of the colleges and develop the university spirit in which teach- 
ing and research should be inseparable. 

It is significant that the committee suggested that the university 
rather than the colleges formulate a general scheme of university 
extension which would give relief to full professors, be of advantage 
to junior members of the staffs, and associate the colleges with many 
local interests. 

1 At the time the average professorial salary was $1,475 at Aberystwyth, and the 
highest average $1,675 at Bangor. 



EDUCATIONAL PKOBLEMS. 95 

The system by which the board of education recognized the uni- 
versity colleges as training colleges for teachers was heartily com- 
mended by the committee. 

In view of the supplementary charter (1906) authorizing the 
university to institute a faculty of medicine, a note was appended to 
the report to the effect that given new buildings for the medical 
school and new chairs for certain subjects, Cardiff would possess 
the requisites for a modern school of medicine and for postgraduate 
work in tropical medicine and hygiene. 

The solutions of the problems presented in the report of the com- 
mittee of 1908 became more pressing with the " advance made in 
all the colleges " in the quinquennium reported upon by the advisory 
committee ^ of the exchequer on university grants in 1914, and the 
reports in the same year of the departmental committee ^ of the 
Board of Education on the National Medical School for Wales at 
Cardiff. After handling almost the identical problems set out by the 
conmiittee of 1908, the committee of 1914 concluded with a reference 
to the difficulty which confronted them "in making recommenda- 
tions for increased assistance to the colleges of the university which 
are financially independent, but which collectively provide univer- 
sity education for the principality as a whole. As it has been rep- 
resented to us that it is impracticable to intrust to the university, as 
at present constituted, the task of determining the lines of develop- 
ment to be followed at each college, and as we are convinced that there 
is real danger of wasteful overlapping of work if there is no co- 
ordinating authority, we are forced to the conclusion that the insti- 
tution of new departments should not be undertaken without the 
previous sanction of the State as the principal contributor to the- 
resources of the colleges." 

A glance at some of the public discussions and official reports on 
the university and the colleges during the past dozen years exhibits 
the variety and scope of the problems before the royal commission. 
The questions are those not merely of federalism, but also of finance, 
of duplication and economy, of educational policies and standards 
within the institutions, and of relationships and national service 
without. 

A representative Welsh leader summarizes the inquiry under 
three heads — machinery or organization, education, and university 
extension, including extramural social service. Though the pres- 
ent machinery might be cumbersome, it did not seem to him to be 
a matter of prime importance. He thought the great point is to 
differentiate the three colleges educationally.^ 

^ Cf . supra, p. 89. * Cf. a similar suggestion, supra, p. 93. 



96 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

He suggested that Aberystwyth might concentrate upon the arts, 
Celtic studies, and music. In the pursuit of the last subject the rela- 
tionship should be established with musical training and choirs in 
all rural communities. Perhaps agriculture should be retained. 

The lines of development at Bangor should be in connection with 
theological colleges and its school of forestry. 

Cardiff, in an industrial community, should specialize in mining, 
engineering, and medicine. It w'as believed that the service by 
each of the institutions, particularly of the interests of its neigh- 
borhood, would result in a renewed leadership of the nation by 
the university, and in financial support from local authorities and 
benefactors Avhich w^ould justify increased State aid. The present 
successful conduct by the colleges of tutorial classes in connection 
with the Workers' Education Association, encourages the vision of h 
new national educational era. 

To give continuity in executive policy and the force of personality 
and responsible leadership, the principal of one of the colleges 
might be made the permanent working head of the university in 
place of the present triumvirate by rotation. 

The above may serve as a specimen of general schemes wdiicli 
may be presented to the commission. 

If the Royal Commission approach the problems from the point 
of view of machinery or organization, the,y will be confronted by 
two parties — the " separationists " and the " federalists." Each 
party falls into at least two groups. All separationists would dis- 
solve the federal university; one school, however, would go the full 
length and make three independent universities out of the 'three 
colleges, while the other school would have but two universities — 
one for South Wales, at Cardiff, and one for North Wales, a con- 
joint institution composed of the colleges at Aberystwyth and Ban- 
gor. The federalists may be said to consist of high and low fed- 
eralists. The high have faith in a federal type of university as one 
peculiarly fitted to Wales now and permanently. The low federal- 
ists hold allegiance to the existing federation, stressing the autonomy 
of the colleges. They fear the development of a superuniversity. 
They will submit out of necessity to an increase of powers in a 
federal university as a temporary measure. They believe '' that 
from the academic point of view the ideal solution of the present 
difficulties would be to make the colleges independent universities. 
On the other hand, apart from the powerful spell exercised on the 
minds of Welshmen by the idea of a national university speaking 
for the whole of Wales, it would seem to be extremely doubtful 
whether university education has at present reached such a point 
in the country as to make this possible as an immediate settlement." ^ 

1 Cf. for a review of the entire university question The Times Educational Supplement. 
Welsh eection, June 6, 1916, 



EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. 97 

They are willing to concede amendments to the university and 
college charters increasing the specific powers of the university in 
the lines desired by the Exchequer and Board of Education. The 
minimum requested by these bodies is that the university should 
be empowered to administer the Treasury grants to the colleges 
and to determine the departments of study which shall be set up 
at each college. In the wake of these concessions would follow 
I lie participation of the university in the appointment of teachers 
in each of the colleges, in the constitution of its staff, and in 
the determination of its gelations with other public bodies. Some 
federalists, having in mind the report (1913) of the royal commis- 
sion on university education in London,^ would adapt its plan of 
government to conditions in Wales. They would have one strong 
university in which should be vested the financial and educational 
control of constituent colleges and university departments. The 
faculty would be exalted as the natural basis of university organi- 
zation. This would protect the freedom of the teachers and give 
opportunity not only for a federation of constituent colleges but 
also of departments of institutions in which work of university 
grade is done by teachers of university rank. This last point w^ould 
aid the commission in solving the problem of the relation of " the 
post-secondary institutions," i. e., technical schools and training 
colleges to the university. 

As an offset to the London model the separationists cite the 
example of four Scotch universities- and of the northern English 
universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield.^ The 
first do not break up the unity of Scotland and, like the second 
group, with its joint matriculation board and other conferences 
and means to secure common standards, show how the Welsh col- 
leges may be " converted into relatively independent universities." 

Universal discussion, so characteristic of democratic Wales in the 
press and magazines, by the advocates of the theories of the federal- 
ists and separationists, has passed into the stage of formal action 
by various bodies. 

The Cardiff Parliamentary Committee, presided over by the Lord 
Mayor, asked the corporation representatives on the university col- 
lege council to take up the question of a separate university for 
South Wales and Monmouthshire. The Cardiff College senate rec- 
ommended to the council the foundation of a separate university 
for South Wales. The college council, however, dissented from the 
recommendation, "being of the opinion that the federal character 

iCf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. BuUetin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 91, 94. 
2 Cf. MacLcan. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, pp. 199, 227. 

«cf. ma., p. 110. 
89725°— 17 7 



98 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

of the University of Wales should be maintained." ' The court of 
the university, by an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution 
expressing the opinion that adequate teaching freedom for the staffs 
of the three constituent colleges can be secured without disruption 
of the existing federal university. 

The drift of opinion in Wales seems to be in favor of the con- 
tinuance of the federal system with a strengthening of the cen- 
tralizing university.^ 

There is general agreement that certain educational reforms are 
as necessary as governmental changes. 

Half governmental but all-important educationally is the election 
of professors at present vested in the council of each college. 

Already in one of the colleges a reform has been proposed follow- 
ing the analogy of the boards of electors to professorships in Cam- 
bridge or curators of patronage in Edinburgh.^ The proposed board 
was to consist of the president and the principal of the college, the 
vice-chancellor of the imiversity, three representatives of cognate 
subjects, and a professor from each of the other two colleges; the 
council to retain only the right of veto. Another proposal was <,o 
enlarge the membership of the senate in the college by having repre- 
sentatives of the departments in addition to the full professors. 

An increase of the powers of the faculties was also suggested. All 
these proposals are in line with the general tendency to increase 
academic representation and influence. A greater degree of academic 
freedom in the sense of lehrfreiheit for the individual teacher and 
lernfreiheit for the student is called for by the reformers. At 
})resent the professors in the three colleges have to prepare their 
students in accordance with a common syllabus. The examination 
questions based upon it are really dominated by the external exami- 
net.* The students tend to lose interest in anything outside the 
syllabus and to cram for the degree examinations. Relief has been 
proposed along a horizontal plane, e. g., either that only the final 
and honors examinations be given by the university, or that the 
colleges control fully the schemes of study, syllabuses, and examina- 
tions for the initial degrees, and the universitj^ be confined to regu- 
lating advanced degrees, the award of fellowships, and post-gradu- 
ate studentships, ajid the encouragement of post-graduate research. 
The desire is strong to preserve the individual initiative of the 
teacher without leading him to indulge his idiosyncrasies in his in- 
struction. It is felt that the tutorial system should supplement lec- 

iCf. The Times Ed Sap., Aug. 1, 1916. 

*Cf. The Welsh Outlook, June, 1916, p. 191; and the articles, "Welsh University Kc- 
form " and " War and Education." Cf. infra, p. 99. 

3 Cf. MacLean. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, No. 16, p. 182. 
*Cf. supra, p. 78. 



EDUCATIONAL PEOBLEMS. 99 

lures, and that the professor's personality should be brought to bear 
upon the student for character building. These and other strictly 
educational questions in these war times of serious attention to 
the realities of life, are transcending in public interest the more 
formal schemes of organization and government which were the first 
subjects of debate. The war is lifting all concerned out of pro- 
vincialism and institutional selfishness, and giving a new sense of 
national unity and service to all concerned. Proof of this may be 
seen in the action of the council of the Cardiff College against the 
dissolution of the university, though Cardiff has at least half of the 
total population of some two and a half millions in the principality 
and four-fifths of its ratable value. 

The war has so reawakened interest in education as a national ne- 
cessity that a new impetus will be given to university extension and 
extramural service in public welfare. 

With the tide of lofty feeling running so strongly in the direc- 
tion of patriotism and unification, without presuming to forecast 
any action of the commission, one may give weight to the opinion 
of a prominent Welsh educator " that the commission would recom- 
mend the continuance of the federal university in some modified 
form." 1 

The commission are authorized to inquire into the relation of 
the university to " other institutions in Wales providing education 
of a post-secondary nature." 

The commission here may find one of its greatest tasks. The ref- 
erence may cover theological colleges, training colleges, technical, 
mining, and agricultural schools, and training schools of domes- 
tic arts. 

The relation established between the university and theological 
colleges may serve in part as a model ^ to be folloAved with reference 
to the other institutions. 

At the moment there is particular interest in the question of the 
university and the training colleges, and the university and the 
schools of mines. Outside the training departments for about 500 
four-years' students at the three university colleges there are six 
colleges with accommodations for about 850 students.^ The uni- 
versity does not recognize the work carried on by these residential 
training colleges. Their students, if they take the certificate ex- 
amination of the board of education, must enter the university 
colleges as freshmen. 

The claim is made that training college students who successfully 
complete their two-years' period of training should be admitted to 

1 Cf. supra, p. 98. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 78. 

3 Municipal colleges at Bangor, Barry, Carleon, and Swansea; Church of England col- 
leges at Bangor and Carmarthen. 



100 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

the university colleges as second-year students for the academic 
subjects taken by them at the training college. "This means that 
the two years at the training college would be recognized as equiva- 
lent to one year at a university college for degree purposes." ^ 

It is hoped that the training colleges may be recognized by the 
university in a way to rank with other professional schools of the 
university upon meeting the demands of the university authority 
which it is proposed should be a " teachers' university training 
board " analogous to that for theological colleges. 

Something similar is proposed for the South Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire School of Mines.^ The present loose connection between 
the university college at Cardiff and the school, it is believed, ought 
to be strengthened so that time spent at the school of mines can be 
recognized for degree purposes. 

Contemporaneous with the work of the royal commission is the 
culmination of a movement of some years standing in the principality 
for the coordination of education from bottom to top. In May, 1916, 
a committee of the Central Welsh Board submitted to the board a 
report preliminary to a public inquiry, which the board proposes 
to ask the Government to make, into the condition of all grades of 
education in Wales. The committee calls for a " closer coordination 
between secondary and elementary, technical and university educa- 
tion." If the Central Welsh Board is to be continued, it is urged that 
it should be the sole inspecting and examining authority in Wales for 
all forms of secondary education. This would transfer to the board 
the functions of the Welsh department of the board of education, 
London, with reference to secondary instruction. On the other hand, 
if the Central Welsh Board is not continued, the conclusion is reached, 
" pending the establishment of complete autonomy for Wales, that the 
most satisfactory solution of Welsh educational difficulties would be 
the constitution of a National Council of Education for Wales con- 
trolling all forms of education other than university." In this dec- 
laration, looking for the long promised grant of educational home 
rule to Wales, the great principle is recognized that from its nature 
a university must have its own government, and is not to be included 
under any State board with other schools. Hence we see the mission 
of the royal commission falls in happily at this time with the great 
movement for coordination. There is no chance for conflict unless 
it should be upon the debatable question as to the inspection and 
examination of secondary schools. The outlook is most auspicious 
for again setting in the forefront the University of Wales as the apex 
of an ideal national school system. 

1 Principal D. R. Harris, The Times Educational Sup., June 6, 1916. 
•Cf. supra, pp. 84, 85. 



PART in.— ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND WALES. 
CHAPTER XI.— SUMMARY OF STUDIES AND SUGGESTIONS. 

The war has brought to a head the educational reforms of the last 
half century. An immediate and " necessary revolution " in national 
education is demanded. The Government has announced that they 
would not wait for an inquiry by a Royal Commission. They have 
appointed four or five committees to inquire into subjects like the 
position of natural science^ in the educational system, and the study 
of modern languages.^ The results of the sectional inquiries of the 
subsidiar}^ committees are to be submitted to a " reviewing commit- 
tee," composed partly of members of the Government and partly of 
public men of parliamentary experience, who will *•' review generally 
the whole field of national education." This committee in turn is 
bound up with the general Committee of National Reconstruction 
over M'hich the Prime Minister presides. 

The Government has also announced that " they are agreed that 
education is a matter upon which they do not dare to restrict ex- 
penditure,^ although the country has before it many years of heavy 
taxation. It would be a false economy which would starve educa- 
tion." This comports with rumors before the war of generous 
schemes for enlarged State aid for secondary and higher education. 

The representative of the Government has said specifically that 
" there must be far greater honor for the teaching profession in its 
different grades, an improved standard of pay, and the possibility 
of making full provision for old age." 

The declared object of the inquiries struck the note ever funda- 
mental in English education, "that education is primarily training 

1 The terms of reference of the science committee are as follows : 

To inquire into the position occupied by natural science in the educational system of 
Great Britain, especially in secondary schools and universities ; and to advise what 
measures are needed to promote its study, regard being had to the requirements of a 
liberal education, to the advancement of pure science, and to the interests of the trades, 
industries, and professions which particularly depend upon applied science. 
- The terms of reference of the modern languages committee are as follows : 
To inquire into the position occupied by the study of modern languages in the educa- 
tional system of Great Britain, especially in secondary schools and universities, and to 
advise what measures are required to promote their study, regard being had to the 
requirements of a liberal education, including an appreciation of the history, literature, 
and civilization of other countries, and to the interests of commerce and public service. 
»Cf. infra, p. 112. 

101 



102 HIGHEE EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

of character demanding the religious sanction over and above the 
development of efficiency." 

It is most significant that the speaker for the Government and 
others, in the three days' debate given to education in the House of 
Lords, did not hesitate to touch the ark of the old universities. The 
question was raised " of freeing the university from preliminary 
studies which ought to be carried out in the secondary schools." 

In the matter of examinations it was explicitly said " the more 
entrance examinations could be replaced by a system of leaving cer- 
tificates the better. As far as the two great English universities 
were concerned, earlier transit from the school to the university 
would be for the general advantage." 

It was added " there was also the question of the proper and reason- 
able allotment of scholarships and bursaries. Although it was de- 
sirable to aid the more gifted to climb the ladder from school to the 
university, in a national system, the training of the average boy and 
girl must be a matter of paramount importance." Details were taken 
up. "' It was not denied that the most promising and brilliant minds 
among the young men were intentionally directed into the humanistic 
road. But there could not be any real conflict between the hiunani- 
ties and science. A man's education should not be regarded as 
purely literary or purely scientific. The most eminent men in the 
scientific world advocated what is called a liberal education. This 
kind of education had turned out university graduates who have been 
gentlemen in the best sense of the term and successful agents of 
civilization in the darkest portions of the earth." 

The mention of physical training was not omitted. Allusion was 
made to the passing, in the experience of the war, " of the dread 
entertained by some people of militarism as attaching to the insti- 
tution of boy scouts, of church lads brigades, of cadet training, and 
of officers training corps in the public schools and universities." 

In the debate on the reorganization of the entire " educational 
system or want of system " there were the usual expressions of British 
individualism deprecating any extension of governmental inter- 
ference. The value of maintaining local interests and activities and 
a freedom from bureaucratic regulations were dwelt upon, and the 
Scotch system was held up as an example. 

The Government reply made haste to say that " the experience to 
be gained from the Scottish system of education which stood so 
deservedly high in the public view would by no means be forgotten." 

Reforms in curricula were deemed to be no less important than 
those in organization. The latter should be only a means to an end. 
It was assumed that compulsory Greek would go, not to be suc- 
ceeded by compulsory substitutes. The principle of compulsion in 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 103 

studies of a university grade was expected to give way to the prin- 
ciple of freedom of election within the bounds of groups of studies 
and natural sequences. 

In connection with the pressing problems of the secondary school 
there was agreement on all sides in paying tribute to the great " pub- 
lic schools." " One of the lessons of the war was that the moral and 
physical training of these schools had stood the test. They had the 
power to train bo^^s to be rulers of men." ^ In most of these schools 
now education in humanities and education in modern subjects are 
complementary of one another. The sciences are no longer named 
" stinks." 

So far as generalizations can go, the program proposed by the 
Government embodies the results of the appeals, legislative acts, and 
university and college actions of the last 50 years. 

This summary may be completed by turning to certain specific 
points in the bulletins. 

There is a tendency to a rapid multiplication of universities which 
possibly the war may check. Since the opening of the twentieth 
century 10 universities have been established in the Islands. They 
are teaching universities condemnatory of the examining universi- 
ties. A great feature has been the development of urban university 
colleges into universities, not, as is sometimes supposed, into city 
universities but into institutions for entire provinces. 

The idea of a university has been clarified and enlarged. The 
idea that the university is only a degree-conferring institution, which 
sprang from the fact that historically only a university possesses 
the power to grant degrees, has been outgrown. " The idea of a 
university reaches far beyond a varied supply of professional train- 
ing, the prodigal granting of degrees, and the anxious encourage- 
ment of research. A university is something more than an engine 
of utility or a product of organization. The essence of a university 
is a spirit, a principle of life and energy, an influence." It is more 
than a teaching institution consisting of a group of professional 
schools surrounding as a core a college of liberal arts, though it 
invariably has such a college.- Ideally it is a guild or corporation of 
teachers and scholars imbued with a " passion for excellence " and 
learning, and largely autonomous in the allocation of its funds. It 
provides the best teaching over the entire field of knowledge within 
the limit of its means, offering this teaching to a wide range of 

1 The spirit of the old public schools is represented by some well-turned phrases : " It 
Is Eton's pride that she produces men not ' mugs.' " " There is no modern side at Eton." 
"The head master of Eton has more to do with the soul of England than the Primate of 
Canterbury." " Sport, the key to English rule and character." " Fair play is the pith 
and fiber of the Empire." The End of a Chapter, by Shane Leslie. Constable, 1916. 

»Cf. infra, p, 105. 



104 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

students who come prepared with a completed secondary education. 
But it is primarily a training institution to discipline intellect and 
spirit for purposes of character building and leadership. Recently 
emphasis has been laid upon the functions of a university on the one 
hand " to extend by original inquiry the frontiers of learning " and 
on the other hand in extra-mural work to diffuse knowledge and 
engage in social service for the public welfare. The idea of a uni- 
versity is illustrated in " The essentials of university education set 
out in the report of the Royal Commission on University Education 
in London." 

(1) First in importance is the corporate life. "Students should 
work in constant association with their fellow students, of their own 
or other faculties, and in close contact with their teachers." A resi- 
dential and tutorial system is favored. 

(2) "In the university knowledge is pursued not only for the 
sake of information but always with reference to the attainment of 
truth." "This differentiates university work in its nature and aim 
from that in a secondary school where definite tasks are prescribed ; 
also from that of the technical or professional schools in which the- 
oretical teaching is largely directed by the application of ascertained 
facts to practical purposes." It involves as a standard of admission 
the completion of a secondary school course. 

(3) In accordance with an almost universal old-world practice a 
" close association of undergraduate and post-graduate work " is 
urged. A superuniversity is an American development repugnant to 
European notions. 

(4) " Specuil research institutes should not form part of the uni- 
versity organization." 

(5) "A university press is an essential function of a university." 

(6) "Technological instruction should be included among the 
functions of the university, but it should not be of a narrow utili- 
tarian kind." It should be based upon a thorough grounding in pure 
science. Herein a line of demarcation is implied between profes- 
sional or higher engineering as taught in a university and mechanic 
arts as taught in the polytechnics and colleges of agriculture. 

(7) " A degree should signify that a university education has been 
received." This is accompanied by a pronouncement that degrees 
should be " practically the certificates given by the professors upon 
the whole record of the students' work." This indicates an English 
reaction against external examinations and examiners and toward the 
Scotch and American practice. 

Plainly the British idea of a university differentiates it from a 
college not only in degree but in kind. The distinction between them 
is so historic and the university so different in kind that in Great 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 105 

Britain there is never any confusion between them. A college is not 
a miniature university. Its prime function is instruction and, stand- 
ing in loco parentis, character training in an atmosphere of general 
culture. The American college, originally planted by Cambridge 
and Oxford graduates, has developed from the English model, but 
unlike the latter has been slow to affiliate or federate itself with the 
university.^ 

The meaning of the term " college " is indefinite and without legal 
definition in Britain. The colleges incorporated in Oxford and Cam- 
bridge have given the word its highest meaning. Hence the adoption 
of the name, " university college " by modern institutions having a 
curriculum preparing for university degrees. Originally such a 
college was distinguished by its tutorial and residential features. 
" University college " has come to have a more definite meaning 
equivalent to a standard college since the Government began to give 
grants in aid for colleges which met its standards. 

Among the standards required by the board of education are a 
consideration of the " standing and efficiency of the teaching staff 
and the extent to which both the staff and advanced students are 
active in research." 

In addition to passing a matriculation examination of university 
standard the entrant should have been in attendance at a secondary 
school for at least four years subsequent to the age of 12 and be over 
17 at the time of admission. 

The grants of the board are not available in respect of courses in 
preparation for a matriculation examination nor in respect of courses 
in religious subjects. Ordinarily grants will not be available in aid 
of a college which gives day instruction of a lower standard tlian that 
of diploma courses. A diploma course is one of not less than two 
years' duration, fitted for students educated in a secondary school up 
to the age of 17 at least. 

According to the commission on university education in London, 
an efficient university college should have an income of not less than 
$100,000 a year. The groups of departments devoted to university 
work should be organized separately from those doing w^ork of a 
lower kind. 

The colleges offer courses quajifying for degrees at the universities 
in a modern curriculum with a wide range of subjects including pre- 
liminary legal, medical, and engineering courses. They also have 
part time and evening students in short courses in commercial, in- 
dustrial, and art subjects of interest to the locality. They maintain 
courses for teachers of elementary and of secondary schools. Not 
being able to give degrees they give diplomas of associateship and 

»Cf. infra, p. 231. 



106 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

certificates. When they have not become " constituent colleges " in a 
university they seek affiliation with neighboring universities. The 
American isolated independent college is an expensive anomaly un- 
known in Britain. If the college can not be locally a part of a 
university it seeks recognition from or affiliation with one. In turn 
a university, consisting only of professional schools, without a liberal 
arts college, would be a violation of the fundamental idea and un- 
broken tradition of a British university. 

A university may be conceived as the crown of a school system or 
as a place to be reached at the top of the " educational ladder " or 
"highway," but never, as it is sometimes expressed in the United 
States as merely " an integral part of the public school system " as 
if it were only a school of higher grade and to be controlled like 
lower schools. 

The need of a national university at the capital of a country is 
taught by the presence of universities in all the great European 
capitals, and especially by the development of the University of Lon- 
don. The argument does not rest simply upon the advantages to a 
university of the experts, collections^ and libraries gathered at the 
seat of Government, but upon the needs of a government to have at its 
OAvn doors a university to aid it and to propagate an intellectual and 
spiritual influence throughout the national life. 

The use of the term " college " for a technical or agricultural 
institution parallel in rank with a university college is gaining 
ground. There are above 80 so-called " provincial technical colleges " 
in the United Kingdom. They sprang from a movement for which 
the inventions of Watt and Whitney prepared the way at the close 
of the eighteenth century, antedating a similar movement in Ger- 
many. 

The congeners of these colleges like the Imperial College of 
Science, London; Royal College of Science in Ireland; the Eoyal 
Technical College, Glasgow; and the great municipal technical col- 
leges or schools, in the largest cities, have raised the question if, 
following the example of Germany, technical colleges should not be 
kept apart from the universities, or if there should not be such a 
thing as a technical university. The answer is decidedly in the 
negative. Applied science is included in the teaching of every uni- 
versity and university college in Great Britain and Ireland. The 
unanimity in practice has only been arrived at recently, after the 
earlier development of powerful separate technical institutions. The 
tendency of some of them to become " technical universities " has 
been stayed. All of them have become incorporated in a university 
or have come to an agreement for cooperation with a university. The 
thesis has been worked out that applied science as contradistinguished 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 107 

from mechanic arts belongs in a university among its professional 
schools. Ajaplied science emphasizes the teaching of the principles 
rather than the practice of an art or profession. 

Applied science, in British usage, has further had its meaning ex- 
panded. It is coming to stand for instruction in higher education 
in a professional school associated with a university on a par with 
the other professional schools. 

In a broad sense applied science is being made to cover the pro- 
fessional schools of divinity, of law, of medicine, and of teaching 
embraced in the universities of the Middle Ages. These schools, 
where they had sprung up separate from the universities, are seek- 
ing affiliation with them. The modern universities have also opened 
their doors to the new professions like agriculture, commerce, den- 
tistry, engineering, and fine arts. All the professions, old and new\ 
are coming to look to the university as the center for professional 
and advanced instruction in the science of the profession which is to 
be supplemented by gaining the art of the profession in practice 
regulated by the organized profession. 

The modern secular universities, like London and Manchester and 
notably the University of Wales, practically a State university, have 
solved happily the problem of giving theological instruction and 
having a faculty of theology or its equivalent. They have accom- 
plished this without evasion of the prohibitions of their charters 
against sectarian teaching, without cost to the State, and without com- 
promising the churches and incurring the odium theologicum. The 
essence of the various plans is found in the power of the universities 
to recognize teachers and courses for degrees in other institutions. 
Theology may even be a subject for which credit is given in the 
place of arts. Of the two old universities Cambridge, by opening in 
191-1 its degi-ees in divinity to candidates not members of the Church 
of England, comes closely into line with the new universities. 

The tardy evolution of agricultural education in Great Britain has 
enabled it to profit by experiments made earlier elsewhere. In Great 
Britain, where State aid is concerned, the work has been transferred 
from the board of education to the board of agriculture. A scheme 
has been adopted for coordinating agricultural education in 12 areas 
into which the country has been divided with a university as a cen- 
tral institution in each area. In Ireland the department of agricul- 
ture and technical instruction has a leadership in policies with 
which those in Great Britain are fundamentally in harmony. The 
department's system of agricultural education extends neither to the 
elementary schools nor to the university. Agricultural instruction is 
concerned with the details of an industry and belongs to the domain 



108 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

of technology and not to pure science or to the humanities. Technical 
agriculture should form no part of the teaching in the primary 
schools or in a university, but agriculture in its humane aspect should 
be taught in every university. " The less the schoolmaster meddles 
with agriculture the better." Experience in Scotland and Denmark 
teaches that the " school is the place to train the man and the farm 
the farmer." 

The agricultural colleges are to concentrate upon training in the 
technology of agriculture and to be the centers of college extension 
in agricultural instruction, especially by the organized work of 
local committees of farmers and cooperative societies. The Irish 
Agricultural Organization Society affords a model for such societies 
which might well be promoted by the colleges of agriculture in the 
United States. The colleges give the long courses of instruction 
suitable for future landowners, large farmers, land agents, teachers, 
and other officials. The college extension provides farm institutes 
or agricultural stations for small farmers. Demonstrations and 
advice are brought to the farm door by itinerant instructors and 
organizers. Most of the colleges defend themselves from becoming 
general colleges, largely patronized by the nonagricultral classes 
on account of low fees, by requiring for admission not less than a 
year's work on a farm and an examination not made from textbooks 
in farm practice. 

The colleges seek credit for their courses in the universities with 
which they are coordinated in order that their students may resort 
to the universities for advanced work and degrees. In England 
there is a scheme to develop a dozen research institutes, generally 
attached to a university, and each with a special subject allotted to it. 

All the colleges keep agriculture supreme and give no extended 
instruction in engineering except in subjects like surveying and farm 
machinery. 

After a struggle of threescore years coeducation is firmly estab- 
lished in the field of higher education. The doors of every university 
are open to women for instruction, though as yet Oxford and Cam- 
bridge grant only certificates and not degrees. There are five types 
of women's colleges; the independent college, the university college, 
the university annex or coordinate college, the college incorporated 
in a university, and the unrestricted coeducational institution. There 
is a distinct tendency for the last type to prevail. 

The organization and administration of universities and colleges 
is a subject of discussion in every part of the British Isles. The 
tendency is strong to escape from an oligarchic government by offi- 
cial heads or by faculty or lay groups, and to secure a representative 
government of all interests concerned. 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 109 

A fourfold plan of organization or, in the case of State-aided 
institutions, sixfold plan, is in operation. Various titles are used 
for what amounts to the same thing. 

First, there is a working head corresponding to the American 
university president. He is invariably an ex-officio member of the 
governing board and other important university bodies. The Scotch 
practice of choosing this officer, aut culpam aut vitam, has held its 
owm. Only in Oxford and Cambridge is the appointment made 
annually. Modern institutions, after various experiments, seek 
continuity of administration and efficiency by the appointment as 
a responsible head of a distinguished educator with executive ability. 
He is expected to hold office usually until he is 65 years of age. He is 
paid an adequate salary, twice or thrice that of a full professor, and 
provided with an administrative staff and often with a residence. 

Second, a governing board for w^hich, after experiments with the 
whole professoriate or Avith large mixed governing bodies, legisla- 
tion, as in Scotland, favors a small body. The tendency is to set 
up an executive board of about 15 members, consisting of the head 
of the institution and men of distinction of various professions and 
interests, who serve without emoluments, animated by a desire to 
benefit their fellow men. Without exception the teachers of the in- 
stitution are represented on this board generally by two members. 

Third, the general faculty or professors of the institution have 
the control of education and discipline subject to the approval of 
the governing body. There is a distinct tendency where it has not 
been as yet accomplished to have a representation on this body of 
the university staff outside the professors, and even also of outside 
experts or practitioners of interested professions. 

Fourth, the organized alumni are empowered to consider all matters 
relating to the institution and to make recommendations to the 
general faculty and governing body. Their suggestions are only 
advisory and without legal authority except in Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Among the proposed reforms in these two institutions is 
the abolition of the veto power of this body. 

Fifth, under the influence of the Scotch example the modern in- 
stitutions have organized students' representative councils with the 
power of making representations to the authorities, and sometimes 
with a representative on the governing body. 

Sixth, there is a large legislative and nominally " supreme gov- 
erning body " of 100 or more members in national and State aided 
institutions. It is a device to represent and interest the State, local 
authorites, and contributors. The scheme is not without criticism 
as cumbersome and giving opportunity for mischievous persons or 
cliques to play their part at different points along the extended line. 
On the other hand, the latest reports favor the sixfold scheme for 



110 HIGHEE EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

State-aided institutions. It reconciles the many interests concerned 
and is democratic. 

Greater precautions are used than is ordinarily the case in the 
United States to obtain a faculty, using the term in its broadest 
sense, of ability and to secure its academic freedom and tenure of 
office. 

Tlie greatest care is giA'en to the election of professors. In case of 
a vacancy publicity is given by advertisement, and candidates are 
invited to apply, but the institution is free to give the appointment 
to some one it has sought out for itself. 

Experiments have been made with every possible method of ap- 
pointment to professorships. Appointments by the Crown, appoint- 
ments by patrons, selection by faculties or by graduate bodies have 
left their traces. 

In the modern universities the executive body appoints the teach- 
ing staff on the recommendation of the general faculty. There is a 
strong movement in favor of plans, like those of Cambridge and 
London, to have a board of electors. The members of the board have 
representatives of the executive body, of the general faculty, and of 
the related departments within and without the institution. It is a 
feature that distinguished specialists in the subjects, " external ex- 
perts," outside the university staff concerned, are on the boards. 

In the matter of qualifications for a professorship there is a grow- 
ing insistence upon the combination of ability for teaching and re- 
search, and of some approved work done in them. 

Security in the tenure of office is not forgotten in a country in 
which the older institutions make appointments for life. In view 
of the new pension system in modern universities it is likely that an 
age limit for retirement at 65, with possible reelections up to 70, will 
become universal. In case of misconduct or incapacity there are vari- 
ous regulations for notice, hearings, and sometimes for the right of 
appeal from the executive to the legislative body, the university chan- 
cellor, or the royal visitor. 

In the matter of salaries, a change for the better is coming slowly. 
There is no attempt being made at absolute uniformity, but only to 
establish minimum standards. 

The salaries in professional or technical chairs are higher than 
those of the academic professorships on account of the gains which 
may be obtained in practice. 

The federated superannuation scheme for English universities and 
university colleges, in receipt of exchequer grants, is one of the most 
important developments which has been made in recent years in the 
sphere of university work. The scheme is being taken up by other 
university institutions. The plan requires an annual contribution of 
10 per cent of the salary, normally 5 per cent by the beneficiary and 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. HI 

5 per cent by the institution. The ordinary means of financing the 
system is by arrangement with selected insurance companies^ for en- 
dowment insurance policies, or deferred annuity policies. Every 
policy is held by the institution upon a discretionary trust in order 
to safeguard the interest of the beneficiary, and in case of his removal 
from one institution to another to facilitate the transfer of the policy. 
The policy matures when the beneficiary is 60, but that is not an age 
of compulsory retirement. 

It is noteworthy that the Queen's University of Belfast, after long 
deliberation, has not joined in the federated and compulsory contribu- 
tory scheme. It has adopted a noncontributory plan. The manage- 
ment and investment of the pension fund are conducted by the univer- 
sity instead of by an arrangement with an insurance company. The 
university sets aside annually a sum calculated at the rate of 10 per 
cent of the normal salary of the beneficiary. This action and similar 
steps contemplated in other institutions may mark a reversion to the 
standard " reserve plans " of great corporations. 

All the universities and university colleges receive grants from 
the State. 

The question of State aid and visitation and the dangers of State 
interference was debated anew in 1913-14 at Cambridge upon a vote 
to appeal to the Government for an annual grant. The testimony 
was that the institutions receiving them had been free from unfavor- 
able results and interference by the State. This is effected by the 
happy method of giving State aid. The grants are determined on 
the report of experts in consideration of two facts — (1) the efficiency 
of the institution and the value of the w^ork Avhich it does; and (2) 
the extent of the local support which it receives. The Treasury, the 
Board of Education, or other board administering the funds consti- 
tutes, ordinarily quinquennially, " advisory committees," consisting 
of the most eminent educators and experts, w^ho serve without sal- 
aries. This method of distributing State aid in lump sums, together 
with the broadly representative membership of the autonomous gov- 
erning body of each institution, prevents the evils of State interfer- 
ence and combines the benefits of State relationship with efficiency 
and freedom in the institution. It is hardly ^conceivable, if the edu- 
cational institutions in Britain were wholly State owned and sup- 
ported, that they would make them departments of the State in the 
hands of salaried officers subject to political changes. The fact that 
institutions of higher learning, whether privately endowed or other- 
wise, are public institutions in their nature and by charter is recog- 

» President Pritchett reflects the scheme but substitutes for a selected insurance com- 
pany a proposed subagency controlled by the Carnegie Foundation, to be called the 
" Teachers' Insurance and Annuity Association," in his proposed "A Comprehensive Plan 
of Insurance and Annuities for College Teachers." The Carnegie Fo indatlon for the 
Advancement of Teaching. Bulletin, No. 9, 1916, p. 50. 



112 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

nized by the office of visitor and other provisions for visitation by 
advisory committees and occasional royal commissions. 

The war promises to introduce a new epoch of increased State aid 
to higher education.^ The dependence of all the institutions, includ- 
ing Oxford and Cambridge, upon fees to meet a considerable pro- 
portion, in some cases two-fifths, of their current expenses would 
otherwise threaten disaster. 

The vexed problem of securing economy and efficiency by the 
coordination of institutions of the same or different types, and espe- 
cially in different localities, affords a variety of instructive experi- 
ments. 

The unique confederation of colleges in Oxford and Cambridge 
is a growth which can not be reproduced elsewhere. 

The varieties of the modern federal universities like Victoria, 
London, the National University of Ireland, and the confederation 
of colleges in the University of Wales deserve careful study by the 
student of the problem in America. 

The debate upon the federal system is being rehearsed anew in the 
proposed reconstruction of the University of Wales. Amalgamation 
of two independent institutions is not, strictly speaking, coordination. 
So persistent is institutional life, so potential are historical associa- 
tions, and so sacred are inherited trusts that amalgamation by inter- 
vention of the State is only justified in extreme cases. 

Coordination through a single educational corporation without 
complete financial incorporation has been evolved at Durham and 
Newcastle, and at St. Andrews and Dundee. 

Happy ex.-'.mple's of coordination by means of cooperation secured 
by voluntary agreements between independent corporations occur in 
the case of Heriot-Watt College and the University of Edinburgh, 
and the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, and the University of 
Glasgow. 

Coordination by a coalition of universities to insure common stand- 
ards in fees and examinations is illustrated in the four Scotch univer- 
sities and in the joint examination board of the four new northern 
English universities. 

Affiliation and recognition of other institutions by a university are 
well-known initial degrees of coordination. 

The manifold experiments in coordination impress upon one sev- 
eral outstanding features. Financial unity is kept subsidiary to 
educational unity. True to the idea of a university as a society of 

^Cf. First Annual Report of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 
Aug. 31, 1916. " It needed the shock of war to make manifest the need for additional 
State assistance. The universities must be the main sources of research in pure science, 
the discoveries in which lie at the root of all practical and technical applications. But 
they will not 1b« able to do their fair share un.ess they can attract more students and 
larger funds." 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 113 

teachers and scholars, " a corporation not conducted for financial 
profit," in any coordination care is taken not to commit the institu- 
tions to a predominantly financial board of control, least of all a 
paid board or a paid committee of a board. Indeed, there is no case 
of the kind in education, high or low, in Great Britain and Ireland. 
A common educational council of some kind is the supreme bond of 
union. The history and genius of each institution are respected. 
Kepresentation is given in the council to the governing body and the 
faculty of each. 

No such thing as a separate graduate faculty exists in any British 
university. 

The variety and differences in standards of admission and the gen- 
eral acceptance of a higher and lower grade of preparation are sug- 
gestive as over against the present American standardization with 
the terminology of " units " after the fashion of an exact science. 
Admission to the university has been determined more by the general 
development and character of the pupil and his fitness for university 
education than by intellectual tests. The idea of the Briton is that a 
liberal education does not consist in sampling all kinds of knowledge, 
but in liberalizing the mind and producing culture by the human 
touch Avhich Principal Shairp defined as " sympathy with intelli- 
gence." It is this spirit, together with the commingling of teachers 
and students, and of the arts and professional studies, which prevents 
the last two or three years of intense specialization in the university 
turning out narrow men. The "public schools" (most nearly corre- 
sponding to the American college) and secondary schools are sup- 
posed to give the liberal and general education. 

The university curricula open with a transitional stage presup- 
posing a general and liberal education in the lower schools. Ordi- 
narily within a year, in the second stage introduced by an examina- 
tion, opportunity for specialization is given preparatory to the third 
and professional stage. We have purposely used the word stage 
instead of year, for within certain limits one may take his examina- 
tions sooner or later when he is ready for them, and take his bach- 
elor's degree in three, four, or more years. 

The double standard for a degree plays an important part — the 
first known as a pass, poll, or ordinary degree, and the second as 
an honors degree. These are quite different from the American de- 
grees with or without distinction or honor which only record the 
standing or "marks" of students who have been through the same 
courses. The British lay out different curricula for the two kinds of 
degrees and types of students. 

The pass or ordinary degree " represents a moderate degree of 
proficiency in a conssderable range of subjects and an honors degree 
represents a much higher proficiency in a special subject or group 
89725°— 17 8 



114 HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND AND WALES. 

of subjects." The pass degree is ordinarily tid^en in three years and 
the honors degree in four years. The temptation for tlie brilliant 
student to shorten his course to three years is prevented by the pro- 
vision of the separate honors curriculum and higher standard of 
examination. 

The professed aim of the British university is to provide for the 
recognition of the quality of work, and for men of ability, rather 
than for a carefully measured quantity of work, and for the average 
man. 

With the introduction of the new studies, group after group of 
honor schools budded oflp the old curriculum. The courses of in- 
struction were divided and organized into subjects, or groups of 
cognate subjects, to be elected by the more serious students. The 
variety and flexibility of the curricula, the attempt to recognize the 
quality as well as the quantity of the student's work, the elasticity 
in the time requirements in covering distinct stages rather than years 
in the curriculum, and the freedom of the student to choose his cur- 
riculum, gave a preeminence among the methods of instruction to a 
tutorial system. 

The Scotch and the new English universities feel the need of some 
adaptation of the tutorial system. 

The tendency everywhere is to supplement the lecture system by 
paper work, and by some adaptation of the seminar, as well as by 
laboratories and practice work in the sciences. 

The curricula in the professional faculties from the nature of the 
case are largely fixed. They are anchored also by the recognition 
of their preliminary courses in the arts and science faculties and 
degrees, and justify within certain limits the combined courses of 
some American universities. 

The spirit of the old and latterly of the new British universities 
to educate the student by the corporate life is evinced by the move in 
all the universities to build hostels in order to approximate the resi- 
dential system of Oxford and Cambridge. 

The appointment of advisers of studies and students points to the 
revival of the tutorial system. 

The prominence of students' unions and students' societies and 
clubs of all kinds promotes the social life. 'The spirit qf true sport, of 
team work, and camaraderie in athletics has been complemented by 
military training and officers' training corps. The war has brought 
out the value of these things. The officers' training corps have sent 
thousands of volunteers into the present war and are regarded as a 
chief source of supply to meet the terrible loss of officers. 

Surely the lesson from British experience is not to multiply West 
Points, but to make more efficient the military departments in 
American colleges and universities. 



SUMMARY OF STUDIES. 115 

The extra-mural work of the universities in the original form of 
university extension teaching continues to flourish. 

The Workers' Educational Association represents a movement for 
years flowing side by side with university extension, and at length, 
in 1907-8, joining it in forming tutorial classes, which has given the 
latest and most promising development of university extension. It 
is a missionary organization working in cooperation w4th education 
authorities and working-class organizations. It is definitely non- 
sectarian and nonpolitical. In conjunction with the colleges and 
with Government aid " tutorial classes " have been organized. These 
classes, with which every university and every university college in 
England and Wales is now associated, numbered 153 in 1914 and 
contained about 3,000 working men and women pledged to a three- 
years' course of serious study and the writing of 12 essays in connec- 
tion with each year of the course. 

The university tutorial classes have stood the test of the war, 
though diminished by enlistments. Subjects cognate to the w-ar or 
arising out of it, judiciously studied, have cultivated the "historic 
sense and steadied men in the midst of this unprecedented cataclysm." 
The marvelous growth of the association, its maintenance in the crisis 
of war, and its success in the federation of labor and learning, mark 
it as a phenomenal sign of the times. 

The occasional attendance of Americans from the earliest days at 
British universities was rapidly increasing, to say nothing of the 
Rhodes scholars at Oxford, before the war. It is likely to increase 
after the war, provided that the universities welcome American grad- 
uates to advanced degrees as German and French institutions have 
hitherto done. 

On the other hand, some British graduates might do Avell to avail 
themselves of the " Opportunities for Foreign Students at Colleges 
and Universities in the United States,"^ to which the Commissioner 
of Education has called attention. 

An exchange of professors like that which has been inaugurated 
between some continental universities and institutions in the United 
States might be adopted to advantage. An interchange also of a few 
representative students is desirable between the centers of English- 
speaking peoples, with institutions and ideals fundamentally the 
same, but with independent developments which it is to the interest 
of each and of civilization they should mutually understand. 

Who will found American scholarships for Britons corresponding 
to the Rhodes scholarships for Americans? 

» Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1915, No. 27. 



INDEX. 



Agi-i<"iiltnral education, Ireland, 58-65; Great Britain, 108. 

Albert Agricultural College, wcrk, 63. 

Belfast College, attendance, 27. 

Board of National Education, created, 26. 

Board of Technical Instruction, work, 60. 

Catholic University of Ireland, coalescence with the National University, 24; New- 
man's plan of government, 21; Newman's seven years of rectorship, 22- Newman's 
vision, 20; occasion of establishment, 19; story of "Newman's University ' since 
his day. 23. 

Celt, clannish character, 9-10. 

City of Cardiff Technical College, 84. 

Coeducation, 108. 

College, definition. 105-106. 

Commercial education, Queens' University of Belfast, 55. 

Cullen, Dr., and the Catholic University, 19-20. 

Degrees, Dublin University, 14, 16; National University, 36 37; Queen's University 
of Belfast, 54. 

Department of Agricultural and Technical Instruction, establishment and work, 58-65. 

Dublin University, and sphere of reform, 13-15; a varient as a "single-college" 
university from the Oxford and Cambridge type, 11; degrees, 14, 16; libraries, 17; 
matriculation examinations, 13-14; religious tests abolished, 14: women admitted, 
16. Sec also Trinity College. 

Educational department. University College, Dublin, 38. 50-51; University oi Wales, 
80: Queen's University of Belfast, 54. 

Engineering, first school, 14. 

Examinations, matriculation, National University, 35. 

Federal University, stock arguments against, 42-43. 

Inglis, Sir Robert, and National University, 27. 

Ireland, higher education, 9-65. 

Irish Agricultural Organization Society, 59. 

Irish universities' act (1908), provisions for education. 47. 

Journalism, taught in University College, Cork, 47. 

Law, education, 38. 

Libraries, Dublin University, 17; Wales, 69. 

Medical schools. University College, Cork, 47; University College, Dublin, 50. 

Medicine, courses, Ireland and Wales, 38. 

"Mixed schools," Ireland, 19. 

Moseley Education Commission to the United States, opinions regarding University 
of Wale=i, 91. 

Mtmicipal Technical Institute, and Queen's University of Belfast, 53. 

Music, courses and degrees, Ireland and Wales, 39. 

National Library of Wales, 69, 86. 

National Museum of Wales, 69. 

117 



118 INDEX. 

National TTniversity of Ireland, and Royal University, 29; and the Queen's colleges, 
Belfast, Cork, and Gahvay, 27; comparisons with the University of Wales, 31; de- 
grees, 36-87; educational policies, 37; faculties, 33-35; genealogy, 25; organization. 
32; organization of the three constituent colleges, 45-57; Mr. Wyse's plan for national 
education, 25; predecessors, 25-44; matriculation examinations, 35; promise oi suc- 
cess as a State institution, 40; question of the permanence of the federated university, 
41; recommendations of Royal Commission, 29; religious tests prohibited, 31. 

Newman, Cardinal, and Catholic University, 19-23. 

Pensions, teachers'. iSee Teachers' pensions. 

Plunkett, Horace, and agricultural education, 58-59. 

Queen's Colleges, Belfast, Cork, and Galway, 27; declared dangerous to faith and 
morals, 19; Wales, 68. 

Queen's University of Belfast, agreement with Municipal Technical Institute, 53; 
arrangement with Royal College of Science, 54; buildings, 56; chair of education, 
54; degrees, 54; faculty of commerce, 55; founding, 52; incorporated, 28-29; pen- 
sion fund, 55-56; predominance of Presbyterians, 40; student's representative 
council, 55; tutorial classes and university extension, 54; variations in statutes 
from those of the National University, 53. 

Religious tests, prohibited in National University of Ireland, 31. 

Royal Belfast Academical Institution, 52. 

Royal College of Science, Dublin, arrangement with Queen's University of Belfast, 54; 
history and work, 60-63. 

Royal Commission on the University of Wales, educational problems, 89-100. 

Royal Commission on University Education in London, and idea of a university, 104. 

Royal University of Ireland, admittance of women to degrees, 29; and National Uni- 
versity, 29; dissolved, 31. 

Science, applied, British usage, 107. 

South Wales and Monmouthshire School of Mines, work, 84. 

State aid to education. 111. 

Student's representative council. Queen's University of Belfast, 55. 

Studies, summaries of, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, 101-115. 

Swansea Technical College, work, 84. 

Teachers' pensions, Queen's University of Belfast, 55-56. 

Theological schools, Wales, 79-80. 

Trinity College, Dublin, an anomaly in English history of a college, 11-12; a variant 
from Oxford and Cambridge, 12; graduates, 17-18; monopoly of higher education, 
12-13. See. also Dublin University. 

Tutorial classes. Queen's University of Belfast, 54. 

United States, State universities analogous to that of Wales, 91. 

University College, Cork, joiu-nalism, 47; medical school, 47. 

University College, Dublin, education department, 38, 50-51; election of governing 
body, 40; establishment, 31; medical school, 50. 

University College, Galway, excellent specimen of the "small college," 49-50. 

University College of Wales, establishment, 69. 

University education, essentials, 104. 

University extension. Queen's University of Belfast, 54. 

University of Wales, 76; a confederation of colleges, 77; degrees in education, 80; 
origin, 68; qualifying schemes of study, 79; supplementary charter, 81; theological 
instruction, 79; university on wheels, 77. 

Wales, higher education, 66-101. 

Wales, University of. See University of Wales. 

Women, admittance to degrees in Royal University, 29; admitted to Dublin Uni- 
versity, 16. 

Workers' Educational Association, 115. 

Wyse, Sir Thomas, plan for national education, 25-27. 

o 



*No. 36. Monthly record of current educational publications, December, 1910. 

5 cts. 
No. 37. Cooperative system of education. C. W. Park. 
No. 38. Negro education. Volume 1. Thomas Jesse Jones. 
No. 39. Negro education. Volume 2. Thomas Jesse Jones. 
No. 40. Gardening in elementary city schools. C. D. Jarvis. 
No. 41. Agricultural and rural extension schools in Ireland. A. O. Monahan. 
No. 42. Minimum school term regulations. J, C Muerman. 
No. 43. Educational directory, 1916-17. 
No. 44, The district agricultural schools of Georgia. C. II. Lane and D. J. 

Crosby. 5 cts. 
No. 45. Kindergarten legislation. Louise Schofield. 
No. 46. Recent movements in higher education. S. P. Capen. 
No. 47. Work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 1914-15. 
No. 48. Rural school supervision. Katherine M. Cook and A. C. Monahan, 
No. 49. Medical inspection in Great Britain. E. L. Roberts. 
No. 50, Statistics of State universities and State colleges, 1916. 

1917. 

No, 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1917. 
5 cts. 

No. 2. Reorganization of English in secondary schools. James F, Hosic, 

No, 3. Pine-needle basketry In schools, W. C, A, Hammel. 

No, 4. Secondary agricultural schools in Russia, W. S. Jesien. 

No. 5. Report of an inquiry into the administration and support of the Colo- 
rado school system. 

No. 6. Educative and economic possibilities of school-directed home gardening 
in Richmond, Ind. J.L.Randall, 

No. 7. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1917. 

No. 8, Current practice in city school administration. W. S. Deflfeubaugh. 

No. 9. Department store education in Boston. Helen R. Norton, 

No. 10. Development of arithmetic as a school subject. Walter S. Monroe. 

No. 11. Higher technical education in foreign couutiies. W. S. Jesien. 

No. 12. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1917, 

No. 13. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1917. 

No. 14. A graphic survey of book publications, 1890-1915. Fred E. Woodward. 



